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'^ir.Syv^<'>t^&^ 







ROMAN CATHOLIC 
CONTROVERSY. 

BY W. C. BROWNLEE, D. D., 

tiW THE COLLEGIATE PROTESTANT REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, NEW YOBK. 




** Teritas omnia Tiucit.»'--IteT, ri. 58—4. 



Second Edition, revised and enlarged. 



NEW YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 
PHILADELPHIA, J. WHETHAM : 
HARTFORD, D. F. ROBINSON. 

1834. 



^ 



-V^ S • N ' , A ' ^s N ^ 






Entered according to Act of (fongress, in the year 1834, by 

WM. c. browni.ee, d. d. 

In the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southren District <^ New-York. 



BOWHK, WUNKR A CO. PRINTERS. 



in 3 



DEDI C ATI 0N« 

TO THE PEOPLE, 

AND TO THE MAGISTRACY, AND MINISTRY 

OF THE UNITED STATES. 



J'ellow Citizens : — I come not before you as a sectarian : nor merely as a 
polemic. The subject of this discussion enlists the feelings of every patriot. It 
involves not only the deepest interests of our holy religion, but the very exist- 
ence of our liberties, and the perpetuity of our Repifblic. 

We come not before you to oppose the Roman catholic religion, merely as a 
religion* We have a higher, and we trust, a holier aim. Having detected in 
it, a lurking enemy, conspiring against religion, and the essential interests of 
our country, we have dragged it forward into the light ; and have brought it up 
to YOUR tribunal, for public judgment in the case. 

In our pleadings at your bar, we shall demonstrate that the Roman catholic 
religion is not found in the Holy Bible ; that it has diverged far, in its erratic 
course, from primitive and pure Christianity ; that it stands now separated from 
it by a gulph, wide as that which separates the prophet of Arabia's Koran 
from the holy Scriptures of God: and that, as an ancient religion, it is, in fact, 
the perpetuation of Greek and Roman paganism, — baptised under a new no- 
menclature. 

But, we shall not rest satisfied with proving each of these positions. Impor- 
tant as is their truth to the christian community, they cannot, as such, claim 
national attention. But there is a point in this controversy which does claim 
your attention, as a nation. For, while pure apostolical Christianity, like its 
Lord, has not its kingdom of this world: while it shrinks from the unhallowed 
union with the state ; and seeks no political aggrandisement , no civil establish- 
ment ; no worldly power, or earthly grandeur ; while it neither aims at making a 
tool of statesmen, and politics, nor permits its ministry and sacred things to be- 
come the willing tool of a carnal policy ; the Roman catholic system is, in all 
points, the reverse of this. 

It is, as we shall see from its creed, and from historical documents, a system 
of mere human policy ; altogcthcir of a foreign origin ; foreign in its support ; 
and bringing with it, over the fice of society, wholly a hostile foreign inlluence. 
Its pope and priests are politicians, men of the world, and mere men of pleasure. 
It is, in the hands of a singular foreign despotism, precisely what the Koran is 



I 



CEDICAT10?f- 



in the hands of the Grand Turk, and his Mufti. It is a tremendous weapon of 
mischief, the hilt of which is at Rome. It wields its holiest things in a constant 
war of proud domination; not only iinitlng, as it does always unite, church and 
state : but uniformly making an abused and insulted tool of nations and govern- 
ments, wherever it has the ascendency. It is not only illiberal, but intolerant 
in its politics, cis well as its religious cteed. It has put forth claims to tax, with- 
out the consent of the people, not only its own subjects, but even the citizens of 
other nations, under the ghostly plei of its divine right to tithes, and spiritual 
offerings ! It has claimed, as a temporal-spiritual power, not only to rule its own 
Roman states, but to interfere with every government of Europe, South Ameri- 
ca, and Mexico. It has not only ruled, with a rod of iron, its own spiritual 
armies of prelates, priests, monks, and friars, with their trodden down victims ; 
but it has interdicted nations ; dethroned kings; dissolved civil governments: 
suspended commerce; annulled national laws ; and paralyzed the authority of 
the magistrates. Hence, each of all the nations, where its withering influence, 
like the terrible Simoom of the desert, has been felt, has, in its turn, been 
thrown into the utmost confusion. It has, from its very genius of despotism, 
uniformly denied the rights of the people to self-government. Wherever it has 
had power over a nation, it has warred against the freedom of the press; the 
progress of knowledge ; the rights of conscience ; and the liberties of mankind ! 
Its one grand aim, — that is to attain wealth, pleasures, and boundless power, — 
it has ' pursued with a step as steady as time, and with an appetite as keen as 
death.' To compass its object, it has employed dungeons, racks, chains, inqui- 
sitions; and the fire and sword of exterminating persecutions ! 

All this, as we shall demonstrate from historical documents, it has done, in 
times past. 

We shall review passing events to show that, even now, it is in the very act of 
executing its deep laid conspiracy against the institutions and liberty of our Re- 
public — b}' means of foreign gold ; by its imported colonies of vicious and 
ignorant men, the vassals of the pops; and by its bests of Jesuits and priests, — 
the household troops of his holiness ; the emissaries of the Holy Alliance! 

And we shall draw aside the mask which it contrives to adjust so carefully 
over its visage, in our country ; and shall exhibit its unblushing claims to Infal- 
libility, AND Immutability ; in order to establish the unquestionable fact, 
that Romanism, spiritual and political, is even here, at this day, as resolutely 
as ever, the same that it was in the Dark Ages; and, moreover, that it will ever 
remain, in reality, the same malignant genius of evil, and the Lawless One, 
until the holy vision of St. John be consummated, at the close of the predes- 
tined period of the 1260 years ! How far I have succeeded in doing this, you 
are now to decide, 

I am, fellow citizens, your humble, and most devoted servant, 

W. C- BROWNLEE. 



CONTENTS. 



Dedication. J" 



The challenge and acceptance. 

Part I. 



1 



LETTER I. Rule of faith is the Holy Scriptures— The judge of controversy is 
the Holy Ghost speaking in them — this, our only tribunal of appeal — tradi- 
tions — the fathers— contrast of the Protestant, with the Roman catholic rule, 
and judge. Their charge of our divisions — repelled— charged on Popery. 3 
LETTER n. Review of the priest's letter i. — point at issue — wherein we 
agree — and differ — -The only, and infallible rule, — no defect, nor obscurity 
in the Bible — proofs— refutation of the priest's declamatory invective against 
the infallible rule, and judge. What is, in reality, their rule? What is their 
judge. 6 

LETTER to Dr. Varela— his separate attack on the Scriptures — refutation— 

in answers to his fourteen queries. 12 

LETTER n[. Verbiage — Roscoe- — priest's besetting infirmity — their decep- 
tion in the use of the word Scriptures: — their tribunal of judgment, the pope 
and hi.3 clergy — all men bound on pain of damnation, to submit to them! — 
farther discussion of the rule of faith — origin of the popish dogma relative to 
theif rule — Chillingworth quoted — dissection of the popish rule, the 1st and 
2d arguments— closed with a review of the priest's errors, and mis-statements, 
in their Letter ii., in six particulars. J6 

PRIEST'S LETTER JIL, Extracts from. 28 

LETTER IV. Rule of faith, continued — the priests never quote our definitions 
fairly — they have, unexpectedly, laboured to convert this into a deistical, in- 
stead of papal controversy-^priests yield a main point to deists — external a«d 
infernal evidence — anecdote illustrative of our argument — the copper kettle — 
the 3d, 4lh, and .5th arguments against the Romish rule. 30 

PRIEST'S LETTER IV. Extracts from, 39 

LETTER V. Rule of faith, continued — genius of popery, its elasticity— it la- 
bours to conceal its real dogmas, in our Republic — it is the same unchanged, as 
in the darkest ages — despotic — hostile to free instUutions — our citizens for- 
get that the Jesuits claim immutability— outlines of the preceding arguments 
— Arguments, ()th, 7ih, 8th, 9th, and lOth, against the Romish rule. 40 

PRIEST'S LETTER V. Extracts from. 48 

DISSERTATION on the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. 5X 

LETTER VI. The claims of the popish rule being destroyed, the Protestant 
rule in without a rival — minute examination of the priest's objections, and ex 



CONTEWTS. 



rors — their traditions — their claims truly ludicrous — an exposure of these tra- 
ditions; their fanaticism, extravagance, and impiety: the aristocracy and no- 
bility of the haughty priests — treatment of the R. C. laity — genuine priest- 
craft — the vicious circle, specimen of it — Jesuitical defence of their adding the 
apocrypha to the Bible — reply to the objection against a written rule, that the 
Hebrews were without the written word for fourteen generations — and that 
before Moses, and in Christ's and the apostles' time, there was no written rule. 
Reply to the repeated objection, that Christ did not command the apostles to 
write the New Testament — and that the primitive Christians had not the Scrip- 
tures in their vernacular. They confound objective and subjective infallibility, 
and make all infallible who have the infalUbJe rule? "Twenty books of the 
Old Testament are lost," — this refuted — E])islle of Barnabas — "The Arian 
Cobbler" — pope Joan — Milner, the dead lion. 55 

PRIEST'S LETTER VI. Extracts from. 63 

LETTER VII. Review of the priest's infidel objections, continued — Textual 
difficulties removed — "the Protestants separate the Bible from oral teaching" 
— this refuted — "the rite of baptism, and change of the Sabbath can be esta- 
blished only by tradition" — this refuted — the Vulgate — farther examination 
of this incorrect version — different from Jerome's version — Clementine and 
Sextine edition of the Vulgate — the Douay translation — the Roman catho- 
lic church has, in fact, no authorized version of the Bible in English :— the fa- 
ther's quoted — no unanimous consent of them on the popish rule — Marcelli- 
nus — infallibility, where lodged — Jesuits oppose our rule by an argument ta- 
ken from sectarian abuse of it — Intention — tendency of popery — deism — 
hostility to the rights of conscience and liberty. 65 

PRIEST'S LETTER VIL Extracts from. 77 

LETTER to Dr. Varela — reply to his letter— St. Ambrose, and saint worship 
—St. Augustine— -Romish conversion, what?— image worship— popish doc- 
trine of grace— Dr. V.'s false quotation— power to appoint neiv articles of faith 
—seven sacraments— ordinances— of God— of the pope — reply to the charge 
of Protestant divisions— efTecls of the ))riest's defective education— specimen 
of popish sophisms — reply to the charge of "falsehood," respecting the Tren- 
tine addition of new articles of faith. 80 

CARD, to the public. 86 

LETTER VIII. Besetting errors — Vulgate— no authorized version in English 
— inextricable difficulty from the contradictions of the fathers— reply to the 
charge of the corruption of our English Bible — Walton and Selden en the 
Vulgate— Bellarmine on the pope's infallibility— Dr. Curtis's charge of Bible 
corruption — reply— Dr. Cardwell's exposure of this— singular instance of 
blasphemy, by our priests— p. 90 — appeal to the confederated priests, and de- 
ists— Proof that popery is a novelty, from historical dates of the origin of the 
chief tenets and rites— -the doctrines which have always been held by the true 
Church— Historical date of, i. The pope'ssupremacy—ii. Invocation of saints 
—"Mother of God," criticised— The divine worship of Mary— Specimen — 
iii. Use of images — iv. Purgatory— v. Celibacy — vi. vii. Transubstantiation 
and the Mass— cannibalism— viii. Abstraction of the cup, in the Eucharist — 
ix. Relics — x. The retention of the Bible in a dead language— Extracts of the 
fathers on these. The question answered, If'hert was your religion before Lu- 
ther ? 87 
PRIEST'S LETTER VIII. Extracts from. 100 
LETTER IX. The spirit of the priest's Letter 8., infidelity— "Mother of God" 
-'-subject of j)resent discussion-— TAe peculiar doctrines, rites, and institutions 
of popery, originated by fanaticism, and sustained by imposture. Carnal repre- 
sentations of the Trinity— ofhcial services of the popish saints— canonizing 
power— miracles of popery— specimens— miracles of statues — doctrines 
settled by visions — the orders of monks founded by fanatics— also their rites, 
the Mass. " 104 
PRIEST'S LETTER IX. Extracts from. 115 



COKTEWTS. VU 

LETTER X. The priest's concession about legends — Luther — reply to the 
taunt of Protestant miracles— the unity in our discussion— traditions— enor- 
mous bulk of the Romish rule of faith — Romish circle about traditions — the 
priests constrained lo admit that there is no authorised version of the Bible — 
i. The exorbitant claims of Rome over the human conscience — proofs, speci- 
mens — idol worship — m<:>ther of God — a Becket — money on his altar — the pa- 
pal supremacy — 4 factions on this — papal claims spiritual and temporal— case 
of F. €ooper in New York Legislature— ii. Rome has lost the spirit of Christi- 
anity — proofs, specimens — iii. Hersystem jo;enerates ignorance andproffligacy — 
quotations from their moral writers — Jesuitism. 118 

Roman Catholic editorial notice— Card in reply. 131, 132 

PRIEST'S LETTER X. Extracts from. 133 

LETTER XI. The Douay Bible not sanctioned by the authority of the Romish 
church—exposure of this — the superstitions and impostures of the Romish sect — 
reply to C. Butler's plausible appeal — baptism of bells — sacerdotal dress — Latin 
prayers — superstition of the Mass — prayer to St. Sacrament — incense — holy 
water — charms — agnus dei — Italian soup — lamps, wax candles — abstaining 
from meats — penance — popish misrepresentations of St. Patrick — ivood of the 
cross — Charles X — .Duke of Brunswick's fifty reasons — supererrogation — feast 
of the Ass — song to the Ass, by his fellows — imposture and fraud of Romanism — 
specimens— cursing of vermin — Bees adoring the Mass — St. Januarius — souls 
coming out of purgatory— Crabs in velvet— miracle of exorcising a demoniac — 
St. Peter's chair, a hoax. 134 

Priest's card to Dr. B. 145 

Reply to this. 145 

Priests' Letter XL, Extracts from. 147 

LETTER XII. The marks of the R. C. church,— "The church" is really the 
object of a papist's faith,— proof, —claim o( antiquity, — refutation of this, — catho- 
licity, — refutation of this, — Romanism against the christian world, and that 
against it. 149 

Card of Dr. B. to the public. 156 

Editorial notice in the Roman catholic print ; and part of Dr. B's letter. 157 

Dr. B's card to the public, in reply. 158 

LETTER XIII. The marks of the church, claimed by papists, continued. — 
succession — refutation of this — no succession by ordination, or holiness, or 
doctrine — the schisms in the Latin church — atrocious popes. 159 

The Priests' closing Letter. 167 

LETTER XIV. and last to the Priests. Review of their Letter— the genius 
and spirit of their controversy — Jesuitism — reply to their criticism on the ar- 
ticles of faith in express texts, in p. 146 — The gracing of their retreat — in a 
parody on the king of Assyria, and his officers — Rabshakeh's fate, and epi- 
taph. 168 

Part II. 

LETTER I. To the members of the Roman catholic church — Introduction — 
invitation to the discussion; — a parable of olden limes — St. Peter — his com- 
panion, a chief-priest — dialogue — the genius of Popery appears to them — 
the result. 173 

LETTER II. An appeal to Roman Catholics, on the necessity of moving in the 
work of their emancipation from priest craft — they are, while under tins mental 
bondage to y)rie8ts, without liberty — various impostures — anecdote of priest 
P., and a Dominie — specimen of mental slavery, here — Carbonarian faith 178 

LETTER III. The Jesuit rule by which priests are guarded — genius of the 
revived Jesuitism — the 4lh mark claimed by the j)apists — sanctity — refu- 
tation of this. 182 

LETTER IV. This subject continued — celibacy and monachisni — exhibitiou 
of clerical profligacy according to the results of papal law — iusliuclivc aaec- 



VIU COIfTENTB. 

dote of the Spanish priesthood — the pope's Tax Book — prices of sins quoted, 
(and A])pendix). 187 

LETTER V. Earnest appeal to Roman catholics to vindicate the cause of lib- 
erty, and our country — an appeal on ihe value of religious liberty — in their 
morals the priests fulfil Bible prediction — danger from Jesuitism — their mon- 
archism — specimen of their docirines, in our land— papal claims. 193 

LETTER VI. We are the best friends of Roman catholics — the treasonable 
doctrines taught hereby Jesuits — quotations — their immoral doctrines— alto- 
gether pagan — their dangerous tendency in society — they produce the morals 
of Paris and the reign of terror — the parent who sends his children to their 
seminaries is a traitor. 196 

LETTER VIL The next mark claimed by the papists — unity — genuine spi- 
rit of Romanism, malignit^^ caused by this plea of unity — Refutation of this 
claim — Rome a distracted church — proofs. 200 

LETTER VIIL Unity, continued — it is destroyed by her monkish orders — no 
unity in doctrines — no unity in papal supremacy— quotations — Augustine — 
Jerome. 204 

LETTER IX. Popery condemned by Scripture, and the fathers — the fathers 
against papal supremacy — Jerome farther quoted on "the Rock" — Chrysos- 
tom — Origen — Thedoret — TertuUian — Ambrose — Cyprian — Hilary — Grego- 
ry — Councils — Bellarmine. 208 

LETTER X. Popery condemned — instances — images — condemned by scrip- 
ture — by fathers — TertuUian, Athanasius, 8cc. icorship of Saints — condem- 
ned by the Bible — by the fathers, Augustine — Athanasius, &cc. — Latin 
prayers — condemned by the Bible — by Origen — Augustine, &:c. 212 

LETTER XI. Popery condemned — on the unanimous consent — worship of the. 
Virgin — condemned by Scripture — by the fathers — Epiphanius — Augus- 
tine — absolution of sins — infamous dogmas of Rome on this — refuted from 
Scripture. 217 

LETTER XII. — The jarring elements in popery, destroy hs unity — it is at war 
with Scripture — and the fathers, on the priests' claimof power to pardon sins, 
Augustine — Jerome — Chrysostom — Ambrose — pope Gregory — Basil — 
Hilary — Cyril — Clemens Alex. — P. S. Papists are by a late decree, allowed 
to eat meat on Saturdays. 220 

LETTER XIII. Popery condemned — popery distinct from the religion of our 
ancient ancestors — appeal to the Roman catholics on this — the popish dog- 
ma on the Rule of faith is condemned — by the Scriptures — by the fathers — 
Hilary — Basil — TertuUian — Ambrose — Cyril of Jer. — Cyril of Alex. — 
Athanasius — Origen — Chrysostom — Jerome — Augustine. 224 

LETTER XIV. Popery condemned— the addition of the apocrypha is condem- 
ned—internal and external proof against it— fathers against it— Origen — 
Athanasius — Cyril — Jerome — Cyprian — Augustine — Councils. 229^ 

LETTER XV. Popery condemned — appeal to the Irish catholics — popery 
was not the religion of your prinjiiive ancestors— St. Ibbar— St. Patrick 
were not papists — earnest entreaty to abandon the novelty of popery, and re- 
turn to Christianity ; — Transubstantiation condemned — by Scripture — by 
reason. 232 

LETTER XVI. Popery condemned — Transubstantiation condemned by the fa- 
thers — Irenapus — Ignatius — Gelasius — Hilary — Cyprian — Ambrose — Tertul- 
lian — Theodoret — Eusebius — Justin Martvr — Cvril — Clemens Alex. — Atha- 
nasius — Origen—Chrysostom — St. Bernard — Jerome — Augustine — Also by 
the Liturgies of Chrysostom and Basil— of St. James — St. Mark— by CyrU 
of the 16th century — and Metrophanes, speaking the sentiment of the Oriental 
churches — Earnest appeal to all Roman catholics on this revolting imposture — 
P. S. Three Romi>h priests convened. 237 

LETTER XVII, Popery condemned — The Mass is condemned — by reason — 
by Scripture — Old Testament — and New Testament — by the fathers— Jerome — 
Damasus— Augustine — Bernard— the Decretals against it — Pope Gregory — 



t^hi^ysostom— Justin Martyr^Cleirtens—Tertulllan—Lactantiiis— Reason why 
the priests cling to this imposture of the mass^— their schemes by it, caused the 
enaciing of the Mortmain law of England^-hintsat various kinds of masses. 242 

Letter X-VllL-^Poperycondemned-^Purgatory-^a cardinal's opinion of its 
efficacy — its history — origin — its novelty — its kind of torments— eight chambers 
in it-^-its immense revenues to the priests-^anecdotes — the young nobleman-^ 
Priest Thom-^auction of souls— revenues from it, in Spain — wholesale rob- 
bery. 248 

LETTER 'K.l^.'-^Popery condemned — Purgatory — condemned by reason, and 
Scviplure— its absurdities — it exhibits the priests as cruel, and inhuman — con- 
demned by the fathers— "Justin Martyr — Lactanti us— Hilary — Cyprian- — Ter- 
tullian — Gregory Nys. — Gregory Naz. — Basil — Ambrose — Justin Martyr far- 
iher, quoted — the Cyrils — >Chrysostom — A thanasius— Jerome — Augustine — 
Bede--Anselm— Epiphanius^-Olympiodorus^fhe council of Aix la Chapelle 
— the council of JBasil^-Bellarmine convicted of falsehood— remarkable saying 
of Archbishop Usher. 253 

LETTER XX. To the archbishop, and bishops of the Roman cathohc church- 
appeal on the necessity of a reformation in their sect — proofs — quotations-^ 
deplorable condition of popish churches — contrast of Protestants and Papists-^ 
priests — their doctrines — and vices-^the cause. 260 

LETTER, XXL The Romish church a perpetuated branch of ancient paganism — > 
proof — the pagan chapel, and the popish chapel compared~-holy water at the 
door of each-^incense— altars— Pantheon, now the house of all the Saints — 
human flesh used in the sacrifices of each^-pagan cannibals — popish cannibals — 
vestments of pagan, and popish priests— -pagan boy in white, attending the 
priest — popish boy, in a surplice — Pix, orbox containing the if^a/er g'o(/^pagan 
origin of this— processions— temple of the pagan foundling, now the temple of 
the popish foundling, with its appendage of siuiilar miracles — priests of Bel- 
lona — the R. C. Flagellantes— pagan water idolatry— popish water idolatry — - 
the sprinkling of cattle by pagans — the same, by papists— the pope is Pontifex 
Maxim us— ^t his Was the title and office of the chief of paganism — hence the 
difference of conversion among papists, and Christians. 264 

LETTER XXIL A minute deUneation of high mass m j?o«i?*^ccr/i&w5. 268 

LETTER XXIIL The idolatry and superstition of popery — sixfold idolatry in 
the Romish church — description of idolatry^-it is, in the words of holy writ, 
*'The Lie" — it is impious — irrational — saint worship— refutation of the Rom- 
ish arguments for it; — anecdote of the chief of the house of Gordon — three 
factions in the Roman church — and three distinct doctrines in it, on images — 
exhibition of these — refutation. 274 

LETTER XXIV. Idolatry and superstition of popery, continued — specimens^ — 
worship paid to Thomas a Becket — more honors rendered to him than to 
Christ, for 400 years, in England — in Scotland ])apists addressed the Lord's 
prayer to the saints — the offices, and employment of the saints — prayer at the 
Consecraiion of images, by the pope — the (pieen of heaven — atrocious idolatry 
of her worship— worship of RELics-^specimens — worship of the wood of the 
cross— specimen — worship of theWAFKU — St. Sacrament, an idol in popery — 
prayers said to it — the idolatry of popery exceeds, in immorality, that of 
paganism. 279 

LETT Ell XXV. On the internal Symptoms of decay , and final ruin of popery — 
no foundation for saving faith in it — its contradictions will hasten its nii'n — 
specimen of these — as the mother of deism and vice, she must perish — illus- 
tration of this — atheism prevailing in popish (countries. 284 
LETTEll XXVL Symptoms of decay and ruin, conunned — the inimorality of 
all its doctrines, and riles — this is working its downfall — popery prnclically 
repeals the whole of the ten precepts— proof — specimens — hs tyranny will 
work its fall — illustration. 288 
LETTER, XXVIL Symptoms of decay andruiti, continued — contrast of a false, 
with the true religion — the spirit of popery, is the spirit of :uiiii>brisi — popery 



X CONTENTS. 

condemns the essential, and holiest doctrines of Christianity— proof — speci- 
men — tlie Bible itself is prohibiled by 7'Ae Index — proof — the jarring doctrines 
in popery, relative to the fundamental tenert of popery, the papal jjiii)remacy, 
will work its fall — specimen of the doctrines of the four factions in the Romish 
church, on this point. 292 

LETTER XXVIJI. Internal symptoms of decay and ruin in ptpery, con- 
tinued — Intention — the application of this peculiar popish dogma to the seren 
sacraments of Rome — it overturns them all — it leaves popery without a priest, 
a pope, a rite, and a church — popish hostility to the progress of knowledge, 
and science — curious specimens of this — singular case of Galileo, and hishop 
Virgil — the appropriate remark of Galileo's companion about the pope, and his 
priests. 297 

LETTER XXIX. Symptoms of decay and ruin in popery, cont'mued — worship, 
and use of relics — this will hasten its destruction, as light, and truth dissipate 
darkness — additional specimens of these relics — ludicrous duplicafes, and mul- 
tij)lication of identical things— amazing discoveries for the antiquarian — in- 
stances — unparalleled curiosities — some blasphemous relics. 302 

LETTER XXX. Popery essentially despotic, and incompatihh with our free 
institutions — minute investigation of this^ — ])roof — scheme of the Jesuits, and 
European despots — popery not reformed, nor reformable — proof — Spanish 
popery at this day — origin, rise, establishment of papal supremacy. 306 

LETTER XXXI. Popery essentially despotic, and incompatible with our free 
institutions — The pope's supremacy is held by papists, to be the essence of 
Christianity — examination of this — the real claims of the pope — teiv'Poral 
POWER claimed by him, as absolutely, and as certainly as spiritual power — 
proof — quotations. 310 

LETTER XXXII. Popery essentially despotic, and incompatible with our free 
institutions, continued — Rome never yet toleratid any other church, where 
she had the power — she has always united church and state, so as to make a 
spiritual tool of the state — historical illustration — her intolerance is, with her, 
a religious principle — her annual denunciation, and damnation of all Protest- 
ants, .lews, &c. — proof — the Jesuitism and falsehood of Dr. England exposed — 
conxicted from his own books — quotations from a rare book in reference to the 
Bull In Ccena Domini — analysis of this bull — the Romish priests' oath — the 
bishops' ■ oath — an ap))eal ro our patriots and statesmen— instructive warning 
in tlie words of the eminent statesman Rucellai. 313 

LETTER XXXIII. IVie six grand attributes of popery — the rise and character 
of the apocaly-plic Beast — its impurity — "the Man of Sin" — its impiety and 
arrogance — historical illustration of this — exposition of 1 Tim. iv. 1, 4. — 
"doctrines of devils" — "forbidding to marry" — " abstaining from meats" — 320 

LETTER XXXIV. The fourth auribute, treachery — proof— the moral tenets 
of popery— "no faith to be kept with heretics," is a dogma of the Roman 
catiiolic church — proof— decrees- — doctrine — facts, in evidence — copy of the 
secret oath of Jesuits — appalling danger from tliem. 325 

LETTER XXXV. The ffth "attribute, 7/jfo?era7?c-e— proof— quotations from 
popes, and councils — popish lands are the lands of white slaves — proof— speci- 
mens— the student and his confessor— state of Italy, Spain, Ireland. 329 

LETTER XXXVl. The sixth attribute of popery, ^Crutlty ;— this put forth in 
two forms of malignit}' — \he Inquisition — Persecw^/o??— Discussion on the first — 
detiniiion of the Inquisitio?! — its history — three degrees in its rise and progress — 
law of the Inquisition — character of an Inquisitor — picture of this infernal tri- 
bunal in Spain— its interior— its tortures— by water— fire— rack— St. Mary — 
an Auto da fe — number of its victims. 332 

LETTER XXXVll. Popish cri/eZ/?/— continued— persecution— crusades— mo- 
ral ones — sanguinary ones — case of Hungary — ditlerence in the instances of 
Protestant and Popish persecutions — Calvin and Servetut — Pojjoy makes it a 
duty, by a regular dogma, to persecute — It does this in two ways : 1. By " the 
mouth speaking great things" — her anathemas — specimen of these : — 2. By 



CONTENTS. XI 

massacres — Bellarmine's atrocious plea for persecution — he avows persecution 
to be the doctrine and practice of Holy Mother — popes — councils, do the same — 
proof— specimens — every Roman catholic bishop is regularly sworn into of- 
fice to persecute — proof— his oath quoted — hence no R. Catholic has it in his 
choice to be liberal — if true to his oath, and his religion, he must persecute — 
proof. 340 

LETTER XXXVIII. The ferocious cruelty of the system o/Po29er3/— historical 
illustrations — the systematic persecutions and massacres of the Waldenses — 
the Albigenses — case of the city of Beziers — Languedoc — 100,000 persons fall, 
in one day, victims to the papists' swords — butcheries of Moors — Jews- 
Christians in Spain— Bohemia — Hungary— France— Holland— Ireland— the 
the public rejoicings at Rome by the pope's orders, on account of the massacre 
of the Protestants of France — the medal struck by the pope, and paintings got 
up, to commemorate the papal triumphs over religion, and humanity — The Ro- 
ish Church has never disowned, nor ever apologized for her former ferocious 
persecutions — As a church, she approved of the deeds of her ancestors, and 
still approves of all her blood shed I Estimate of the victims of this sanguina- 
ry sect — an appeal to all orders of christians — and to the American nation on 
this matter — appeal to the consciences of the bishops — conclusion — we part to 
meet no more, until we meet at the Judgment seat of God — apology for the 
freedom, and warmth of my address; Card to the public. 345 

THE APPENDIX. I. The comparative numbers of Papists— and Chris- 
tians. II. Extracts from the pope's chancery book. III. Gross impurity en- 
joined by popes and councils. IV. Index Expurgatorius, V. Form of a pa- 
pist's confession, VI, Absolution, 351 



^ 



THE 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



THE ORIGIN OF THIS CONTROVERSY IS FULLY EXPLAINED IN THE FOLLOWING 

CHALLENGE. 

To the Editor of the Truth Teller. 

Sir: — In the series of letters addressed to me by a Roman Catholic writer, in your 
■columns, I have been honored with a succession of public challenges to come out in 
the discussion of the Roman Catholic tenets. And you have, in the frankest and 
most candid manner, offered me your columns for my reply. 

I have stated repeatedly to my friends, and also in a letter to a Roman Catholic 
gentleman of my acquaintance, — I mean Dr. B., that I shall not come out in reply to 
any anonymous writer. And you know as well as I, that no man of honor would do it. 

I have waited for several months to see some responsible name appear ; I have 
been hitherto disappointed. But, now, feeling as every Protestant minister does, that 
no one should decline a call given, in Divine Providence, to defend the truth, I beg 
leave to make the following propositions, in all frankness and candor. Through you 
I beg respectfully to give a challenge, in my turn, to aliy one, or all of the following 
gentlemen, Roman Catholic priests, in our city, to come forward and discuss, in a 
series of letters, alternately with me, the leading doctrines and practices which sepa- 
rate the Protestant Churches from Rome ; — I mean, the Right. Rev. Bishop Dubois; 
the very Rev. Dr. Power; the Rev. Dr. Varela; or the Rev. Mr. Levins; or any 
other, whom they will nominate, as their substitute. 

A reply, as early as you can make it convenient, is requested. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
January 28, 1833. W. C. Brownlee. 

The following letter appeared in the ''Troth Teller," in reply to Dr. Brownlee. 

Mr. Editor: — ^We accept Dr. Brownlee's ''Challenge.'' But, to exclude all 
chance of introducing equivocal or irrelevant matter, to secure singleness of view and 
imity of object, to prevent shift, subterfuge, and cavil, "to avoid foolish and unlearned 
questions, knowing that they beget strife," — 2 Tim. ii. 23 ; — he is requested to s.tate 
what is his Rule of Faith, and who, or what is his Judge of controversies in matters 
of faith. 

John Power, V. G. and Rector of St. Peter's. 

Thomas C. Levins, Pastor of St. Patrick's Callicdral. 

Felix Varela, Pastor of Clu-ist's Church. 



1 

i 



LETTERS 



REV. DR. W. C. BROWNLEE, 

ON THE 

KOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

LETTER I. 

To the Editor of the Truth Teller. 

Sir: — ^I feel indebted to your politeness in causing to be inserted in your columns, 
my call for a responsible name : and, through you, I tender my respects to the learned 
gentlemen who have met my invitation. 

I hope we shall not be so long in settling our preliminaries, as the two gentlemen 
were, who have commenced their discussion in Philadelphia. At any rate, it shall 
not be my fault, if we are. I hope, Sir, the learned Priests do not mean to throw a 
barrier in the way to prevent our discussion : although the request, or insinuation put 
forth in their "acceptance" of my "challenge," does appear to me to be something 
which rather squints that way. 

Mr. Editor, — I shall not allow myself to be stopped at the very threshold of dis- 
cussion, by any invitation to settle the Rule of faith and the Judge of controversy. 
If we pause here until we shall agree on this point — we shall stop here forever. The 
Protestant and the Roman Catholic do not; — and what is more, they can never agree 
on this point. This creates the abyss which lies between them : If they could agree 
on this point, they would no longer stand in the relation of Protestant and Papist. 

The only Rule of faith and fnal Judge of controversy, as every Protestant believes, 
IB THE Holy Spirit speaking to us in the written word of God, the Holy 
Scriptures ; containing all the books of the Old Testament, and all the books of the 
New Testament. In these, God spoke to the church in Hebrew and in Greek: if 
tliere be any thing not so plain, at first view, as I wish, I compare parallel passages, 
and evolve the meaning by all proper means, under the guidance of the fountcun of 
truth, the Spirit of God, who has promised to "guide us in all truihJ''' 

To charge the Holy Scriptures with obscurity, or deficiency, is the same thing as to 
bring a charge against the Holy Ghost. No christian can do this. The apparent ob- 
scurity on the pages of the \V\h\v,, proceeds from the darkness of our minds. Hence 
the S{)irit of God teaches us to pray — "Open thou mine eyes that 1 may behold 
wondrous things out of thy law!" Psalms cxix. 18. And shall I dare to call that 
obscure or imperfect, which the S[)iritof God gave forth, and has declared to be clear 
pr " plam to him that understandcth ;" so that he may run tvho rcadcth it ? Shall I 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 



dare to add human traditions, or the laws of erring mortals, to that Rule which God 
has given to the church, and pronounced "perfect" and "sure" and "right," and 
"pure?" Ps. xix. Shall we dare add to God's holy word, who has laid this 
solemn command on protestant, pope, and priest, — "add thou not unto his words, 

LEST he reprove THEE AND THOU BE FOUND A LIAR !" PrOV. XXX. 6. Will any 

priest or layman, dare add to that Holy Book which the Holy Spirit has made perfect, 
closed up, and sealed with a tremendous malediction on the mortal who shall '-'■add to 
it or take away from it.''' Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 

I can appeal, in controversy, to no tribunal but to that of the Holt Ghost speak- 
ing IN THE SACRED ScRiPTURES ; — who has cxprcssly enjoined on us this command, 
Isaiah viii. 19, 20. " Should not a people seek to their God ? for the living to the 
dead? to the law, and to the testimony, if we speak not according to 

THIS WORD, IT IS BECAUSE THERE IS NO LIGHT IN THEM." The Bible COntailLS 

the whole religion of the Protestant. But if a mortal man has a right to add to God's 
word, then why may he not also alter and new model it? But the man, be he Pope, 
Priest, or Protestant, who ventures to do this, does actually usurp the throne of God : 
" he sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God !" He sits in judgment 
on his Maker ; he calls him up to his bar, and dictates to God ! If this be not the con- 
summation of blasphemous daring, I profess I know" not what can be ! 

As for Romish traditions and oral laws, we shall treat them with the same respect 
as we do the Koran of Mohammed, until the evidence of their divinity be produced, 
and established by prophecy, tongues, and miracles : and the fact be confirmed that 
God gave them to the Church of Christ for a Rule. 

As for the fathers of the Greek and Latin Churches, I will receive their pages with 
profound veneration, and sit at their feet, as the expositors of truth, as soon as the Ca- 
tholic Church of Rome shall produce a genuine copy of them as the fathers wrote, and 
left, their sentiments : — namely an editio expurgata, free of the scandalous alterations, 
and corruptions made in them, by the monks of the dark ages ! 

For the Pope, and " Holy Mother Church," I shall yield myself a dutiful son and 
throw myself at his holiness' feet, as soon as he shall produce, before the Christian 
w^orld, a few genuine and authentic credentials, from the court of heaven; confiimed 
infallibly by the miraculous gifts of tongues, prophecy, and miracles — as the holy 
Apostles did — that God Almighty has really constituted him the legal deposit of truth : 
the fountain of immaculate purity, and the accredited expounder of the Holy Bible ; 
to create mental light, and with his keys to lock up in darkness the heretical mind ; and 
be the final judge of controversy. The world has become too enlightened to give cre- 
dit to the fanatic, or knave w^ho sets himself up for the " standard" of truth, or as one 
who is admitted into the secrets of Heaven, and the cabinet minister of the court of the 
Almighty. Nay, so unruly has the human mind become, in consequence of its burst- 
ing the chains of darkness, and emancipating itself from the ghostly power and super- 
stition of the dark ages, that it not only ventuers to call a man a fanatic, but gravely 
to propose a place in bedlam, for the man who would enact the scenes of former days ; 
who would constitute himself the fnal judge of controversy, set up claims over God's 
own word ; pass gag laws against the freedom of speech and the press ; or forge chains 
for the human conscience, and prevent tlie progress of glorious liberty ! 

This is protestantism. On the contrary every body knows that the Roman Catho- 
lic Church rejects these opinions of Protestants with disgust. They deny, indignantly, 
that the written word of God, or, the Holy Ghost speaking in the scriptures, either is. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 5 

c?r can be the Rule of faith, or Judge of controversy. What we call God speaking in 
the scriptures, they venture to pronounce a thing obscure, powerless, and utterly unfit 
to be a Rule or Judge. What we call the voice of God speaking in the Holy Word, 
has no authority, no power, with them, — no binding obligations on the conscience ; — 
wntil the Pope, or the Holy Church shall pronounce it to be the word, and give it vita- 
lity and authority ! By their creed, even Almighty God cannot speak through his own 
word, with either intelligence, or authority, until the Pope shall bid it have intelligence 
and authority ! He — not God — is the " living speaking Oracle," of truth ; he, not God, 
is the *'only final Judge of controversy!" 

Hence it is morally impossible that the Protestant and the Roman Catholic can ever 
agree on this point. 

The priests airect to believe that the absence and want of their living, speaking ora- 
cle in our system, has originated the various divisions and sects among Protestants. 
And this has afforded a rich harvest of materials for our good humored opponent's elo- 
quence. Every body has heard of Dr. Power's stereotype sermon on Unity, Catholi- 
city, infallibility, and the endless divisions of the heretics. 

The priests have been rather unfortunate in selecting this topic for their declamations 
against the Christian world. For, it is known to every one that there is scarcely even 
one erroneous sect, or heretic, in ancient or modern times, which has not sprung up in 
the bosom of "Mother Church!" But, then, the Holy Inquisition and the bishops 
have carefully and assiduously sought them out, and made glorious bonfires of them! 
Yes, every returning year, at that Komish feast of charity called an auto da fe, did 
Holy Mother turn all these sectarians into the fire, and burn them as did the votaries of 
Moloch, in sacrifice to the genius of their idolatry ! 

Now, did the Protestants imitate the example of the Romish Church in the horrid 
festivals of her ghostly despotism ; and did the strongest party in the land, annually, 
doom to the dungeon and the flames, all the weaker sects, — then assuredly there would 
soon be as much terrific unity among Protestants, as there is in Spain and Italy! 

But, In the United States, in our happy Republic, there is no State religion, — and no 
union of Church and State, as in all Roman Catholic governments. Hence the lovely 
picture of Protestant mildness, charity, liberalit^'^, and mutual forbearance i 

But, after all, it is a pleasant piece of humor, to hear the Roman Catholic priestfli 
ridiculing tlie divisions and various sects of the Protestants; while they laud "the 
unity oflloiy Mother Church, created and cemented by their living, speaking Oracle P^ 
What! This coming from the members of the Roman Catliollc Church; — a church 
containing, in her bosom, more divisions and sects, than all those of Protestants! A 
churcli rent and lorn by divisions of the most untractable and irreconcilable kind! — 
Ask yon for jiroof? 

Witness tiic fc.ud , in ihat day, when three rival popes wore mutnally putting the 
pontidcal ban on eafli oilier! Witness the divisions and horrid scenes of conflict in 
the bo^'om of Holy Mother in the great Western Schism, which every Roman Catho- 
lic historian details I Witness tlie divisions, in doctrines, caused by the Angnstinee^ 
conflicling with other ^c;is! Witness ihe violent feuds between the Jansenists and 
the Josiijis! Witness tlu; divisions caused by the Dominicans, so famous for their 
zeal in bnniing better and more virtuous men liian themselves! Witness the ditfi^rent 
sects ofgray friars, and white, and black; and the mendicants! Witness the exaspe 
rating fends between the Franciscans and tlw Dominicans, touching the immaculate 
conctj/tioii of tl\c yirgiM Mary: — the former, stoutly mainiaining that tihe was cour 

8 ^- 



O ROMAN CATHOLIC COXTROVERSr. 

ceived by her mother, as pure and innocent as Jesus Chiist was ; and the latter sect, 
with no less than Saint Bernard at their head, insisting that this sentiment was a daii>- 
nable heresy ! Witness the eternal wars in the bosom of Holy Mother, between thes^ 
unnatural and turbulent sons^ the Scotists, and the Thomists .' Witness the characte- 
ristic feuds and brawls of the Jesuits, the Benedictines and Dominicans. Witnesi? 
the sir grand heads of controversy in the sixteenth century, Avhich rent thp Holy 
Church in pieces; and which are familiar to every Roman Cathohc student of their 
awn histories ! The fierce and indomitable Jesuits were pitted against the Jansenists, 
Dominicans, and Augustines. Sometimes the Jesuits and Dominicans were pitted 
against each other, as, for instance, on the doctrines of grace : At other times, the Je- 
suits and Dominicans united on the efficacy of the sacraments, in opposing all other 
sects ! See Dr. Courrayer's translation of Paul Sarpi's Council of Trent. 

Wimess the violent conflict between the Franciscans and the Pope, John XXII., in 
the 14th century ! and the fierce contest between the Jesuits, on the one side, and the 
Augustine doctors, and the university of Louvain, and of Douay, on the other ! Wit- 
ness the long and furious controversy between the Mohnists of Spain, with the Augu£- 
lines and Thomists, and which set at defiance Pope Clement VIII., and all his influ- 
ence, for a long season ! 

In fine, I know scarcely a single century of Holy 3Iother's history, when the 
bosom of her Unity was not a frightful arena of fierce contending priests, whom no 
power on earth, faUible or infallible, could compose, till they had exhausted their 
mutual finy- ! See the pages of Nicholas De Clemangis ; Wessel cf Groningen ; Cas- 
sander, Rajmer, and Ferns, Cap. 8. Judic. 

As forU>iTT, — there was Unity, 3Ir. Editor, — most striking Unity, in Holy Mother. 
There was unity in opposing the Spirit of God speaking in the scriptures. There was 
unity in adoring images, relics, and the saints. There was unity in declaring for 
seven Romish sacraments instead of the bible's tico. There was unity in the belief 
and projit of purgatory. There was unity in believing that the Pope has the keys of 
Heaven : and that he and the priests will allow no heretic to pass into the kingdom 
of heaven. There is perfect unity in 3Iother Church, in denying the necessity of re- 
generation and a new heart, by the Holy Ghost ; there is unity in denying that Christ 
finished his atonement on the cross — unity in offering him up, afi-esh, for the sins of 
the quick and the dead, in the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass! There is unity in de- 
nying justification by the righteousness of Christ alone ! There is wiity in believing 
that Christ is not the only mediator, that the holy %-irgin is mediatrix ; and ''jure mch- 
tris juhet flio ;'' by "the rights of a mother, commands her Son" to hear us. See th« 
Rosary and Missal; and Bonavent, Cor. B. M. Virg. — Tom. 6. Rom. Edit, of 153S; 
Psalter of the Virgin, p- 84. Argent Edit. 

This is a specimen of the only unity which characterizes the Holy Mother, and 
which your ''Uving and speaking oracle" promotes! 

Besides, Sir, — " Ego et Res," — I and the learned priests have, already, tried oar 
mutual strength on the floor, in oral debate. And we got along, in perfect good 
humor, and quite as successfully as one could have anticipated, without stopping to 
settle the point about the Rule and Judge. Each one took his own way ; as I now re- 
spectfully propose to do: and went straight forward, like honest men, and skilful con- 
troversalists. I mean, therefore, Mr. Editor, -vsith yom: leave, soon to pass on to one 
great and vital point, — say, the Church. 

I am, Sir, your most ob't and humble ser\-ant, 

W. C. Brow>-lee. 



t6MAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY* 7 

LETTER II. 

TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND LEVINSo 

On the Rule of Faith. 

Gentlemen : — You begin your letter with an expression of amazement at my 
** chivalrous" daring in "challenging prelate and priest," to this discussion. The 
chivalry of "the lion hearted Richard" himself, excites less amazement than this 
Tenturous daring of mine, to challenge four men led and shielded by " infallibility" 
itself! And all of them, moreover, sharing in the blessings of the same " infallibility !" 
But you forget the feehngs of a protestant. In his estimation, "prelate and priest" 
are official creatures of mere human fiction, — and quite harmless among "lion heart- 
ed" republicans. And the ghostly claims of "infallibles," sound in his ears like the 
bravadoes of the antiquated heroes of Otranto! 

The fact is, and you know it, gentlemen, I was driven into this controversy by your 
own partizans. And, therefore, my claims are too humble, in this matter, to be deco- 
rated with the honors of "chivalry." I return them, with all humility, to their right- 
ful owners. 

You have utterly mistaken my meaning as to " the settling^'' of the point of the Rule 
and Judge of truth. I simply alledged that there could be no use in stopping at the 
threshold of the debate, until we, — that is. Catholic and Protestant, should come 
together on this point. For the truth is, we never can "settle it" in this sense. This 
creates the abyss which lies between us. My only object in those remarks, was to 
make sure the continuance of our discussion. 

That the question touching " the Rule''' was of small moment, was no statement of 
mine. I deem it of infinite importance. I have not declined the discussion of it. 
Nay, gentlemen, pardon me, I have discussed it, — though briefly, in my first letter: 
yes, and settled it too, in the only sense, so far as I can see, in which we can settle 
it. That is, I have distinctly laid down the Protestant Rule, and shown out of the 
Holy Bible, that it is the Holy Spirit speaking to us in the written word. And I have 
also stated, fairly, your Rule, namely, — the scriptures, the apocrypha, and oral tradi- 
tions, explained by a living, infallible oracle. This was, as I did conceive, going as 
far as we ought to go at the entrance of our discussion. I was willing to take it up in 
its proper place if you pleased. And, I did really suppose that you would, yourselves, 
have preferred the discussion of it, after we had discujjscd the subject of the " infallible 
Church." It was natural, ,/irsi to seek out this said ^^infallihle church^'''' and, then, to 
aeek out, in her, this said " infallible Rule and Judge.'^ And, gentlemen, arc you not 
aware that this is the order, which was pursued by your " infalhble council of Trent ?" 
[Sec Scss. 3 and 4.] 

But I am not tenacious: I yield to courtesy : qua via ducit sequar. Since you in- 
sist on it, that the Rule shall be discussed first, even so be it: only let none of us pro- 
pose a retreat. 

The point fairly at issue between the Protestant and Roman Catholic cliurchos on 
die Rule of Faith and Judge of Controversy, is this: — liolh of us, in tlie fust place, 
admit that there is an infallihk rule of faith, established by Christ, to guide us in mat- 
ters of faith, and decisions of controversy^ in religion. But, in the second place, we 
difl'er, ioto calo, as to what that Rule xa. 



9 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

First : — The Protestant Church declares that the only Rule of faith and Judge of 
controversy, is the Holy Spirit teaching its in the written word of the Old and Neta 
Testaments, every thing necessary to be known and believed, in order to glorify God 
and enjoy him for ever. 

Second: — The R. Catholic Church believes that the only Rule is the scriptures in 
the old Latin, or Vulgate translation, only, together with the Apocrypha, and oral tra- 
ditons: and all these are to be infallibly explained by a living, speaking, infallible 
oracle and judge; who is, 1st, according to one sect in Holy Mother, the Pope: 2d, 
by another sect, a Council: 3d, by another sect, the Pope and Council: 4th, by another 
sect, the Holy Mother Church, — meaning the Pope and his clergy. Such is the dis- 
cordance of sentiments, in the very bosom of ^^ unity and infallibility,^^ touching this 
vitally essential point, namely, "the infallible Judge!" And this, by the way, ex- 
plains the phenomena, in the mode of pursuing their argument, both by my opponents 
and by Mr. Hughes'. They make a vaporing demonstration, and a threatening air of 
assault upon "the poor offending Bible," the Protestant's Rule, in order to hide the 
weakness of their own system. They labor to raise a cloud of smoke and dust, around 
the truth, and then to escape in the dark. 

Here we have, at one view, the two great dividing sentiments. Protestants, with 
humble veneration, receive the Holy Ghost speaking in the written word, as their only 
Rule and Judge ; and they know, and are sure, that he speaks to them as plainly, and 
intelligibly, as a beloved fatlier does, in a letter to his dear child, — choosing to express 
his vv-ill in the plainest and simplest terms. On the contrary, the Romish Church's 
Rule is the Pope, or Council, or both, or Holy Mother. They are not agreed here. 
But they are agreed in this, that it shall not be the Holy Spirit speaking in the scrij>- 
tures; and that he shall have a rival, and opponent in his own house! And now, 
let tlie christian public decide whether we, as rational beings, shall listen to God oui 
Maker, speaking to us, or to an "infalhble Judge," composed of one or more fallible 
human beings ! And these, moreover, not very holy, nor very virtuous men ! Nay, 
they are men of the most presumptuous arrogance, and pontifical pride ! Did men 
reason and draw their information from the pure fountain of truth, and not believe, 
eimply, by proxy, this controversy might be settled in a few minutes. Let us examine 
each of these in their order : — 

*1. The Protestant Rule and Judge. Suppose I say to Dr. Power, here is a point 
to be settled; who shall tell us what this Rule is? To whom shall we go? Shall I 
go with you to your "infallible Rule?" Or will you go with me to the holy scrip- 
tures, and hear the Spirit of God speaking infallibly to us? We cannot go to your 
*^ infallible Rule." This is the very subject of enquiry ; you have not yet found this 
infallible rule ; this is the point in debate. We can go to the holy scriptures : you 
admit their authenticity and inspiration. If you do not, you are deists. I repeat it, 
gentlemen, if you question the divine inspiration of the Bible, tod are Deists ! If 
you place yourselves by Paine and Hume, then I am prepared to meet 3^ou with argu- 
ments on the external and internal evidence of the scripture's inspiration. This, how- 
ever, would be a shifting of the ground. 

But if you admit their divine inspiration as the Council of Trent does, — then here 
we have found the infallible Rule. For the same evidence which establishes their di- 
vine inspiration, does also establish their infaUibility. God, speaking to us, speaks 
infallibly the truth. Now, we have 1st, only to open their pages and listen, with pro- 
found reverence, to God speaking to us. Psalm xix. Here the law of God is declared 



ROMAN CAtHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 9 

fa be " perfect ;" it is " true ;" it is " right ;" it is " pure." Isaiah viii. 19, 20. " Should 
not a people seek unto their God ? for the Hving unto the dead ? To the law and to 
the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light 
ia them." Here those are reproved as going away from God, even going "to the 
dead," on behalf of the living, who go to any human bar or judge, for the rule of truth. 
Again, Prov. xxx. 6. " Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou 
be found a liar /" 2 Tim. iii. 16. " All scripture is given by inspiration of God and 
is profitable, &c., that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all 
good tvorks." Here " the perfect" word of the Lord makes the man of God perfect, 
and thoroughly furnished to all good works. No language can more plainly declare 
this rule and judge infallible. And, finally, read in Rev. xxii. 18, 19, the tremendous 
maledictions of Almighty God, on all those who " add to" and who " take away 
from" God's written word ! 

Here, then, we have the will of God most plainly spoken. Obscurity, v/eakness, 
and inefficacy, are not in the word of God. Who will challenge the Almighty and 
say to him, thou speakest obscurely, and weakly, and inefficiently ? Who will ven- 
ture to utter such blasphemy before the christian public ? If you think it, speak it 
out. We challenge you to come out against the Bible : call it imperfect : call it a 
failure. Set up the Pope against God. Bring out your accusations against the Holy 
Spirit. Tell the public that it is the Pope or his clergy, and not God's blessed word, 
that "converts," that makes us "perfect," that " furnishes thoroughly to all good 
works !" I know you say this in your books : this is the very basis of your argument 
when you go to establish your living infallible judge ! 

2. The Holy Scriptures are God's law ; and our Lord's last will and testament, 
Kaivr] Aia9r]Kri. Now, what shall be done to a man who forges a new law, and foists 
it into the code ? What shall be done to the man who forges, adds to, or alters a man's 
last will and testament, to promote his own ends ? What '■^ sorer punishmtnt" awaits 
the man, council, or pope, who with fearful daring, under the very eye of the Almighty, 
adds to, forges, and alters God's law ; and our Lord's last will and testament I 

3. I shall lay before you, the following chain of reasons and maxims. God is the 
only lord of the conscience. Will any man deny this, and put his conscience in the 
keeping of pope or priest, who will, any day, pledge himself, in a manner similar to 
those spirital trafficers who absolved the Duke of Brimswick .' They were, by a 
solemn bargain, "to be damned in the old Duke's stead, if he happened to be damned 
for becoming a Roman Catholic!" Again, God alone can dictate to the conscience, 
and prescribe our creed and true form of worship. If the proudest pope who ever set 
foot on neck of king or emperor, should rise up and dictate these, he would seal his 
fate as "that man of sin, sitting in the temple of God," affecting to do God's work, by 
a shocking usurpation ! Besides, God only can make known his will. Ho employed 
rational instruments to deliver his messages. God UGver reqinrGd hcWcf ■wlthoul evi- 
dence. He always vouchsafed sufficient evidence, when he sent a pro])het or apostle : 
that evidence was exhibited by miracles, prophecies, and tongues. When any pre- 
sented claims to inspiration, or to give an infallible rule, the church, by her Lord's 
command, required the necessary evidence. Try the spirits, trhcther they be of God. 
The church still, must have recourse to the same mode of trying those who pretend 
to divine claims. If we believe without evidence, we yield ourselvtvs a prey to im- 
posture. If any society of men now claims to be infallible, then tliey have, from 
God, the usual evidence of miracles, prophecy, and tongues. If tliey w:mt these, thoy 



10 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

are knaves and impostors. " Holy Mother" has actually set up these claims : she 
diliberalely says that God speaking in the scriptures neither is, nor can be the infedli- 
ble rule : but she herself is it. Tliis claim she sets up, without producing any of the ne- 
cessary evidence. HencC; if there be truth in the Bible, she does act the knave and 
impostor ! And, of course, you know whence she got her commission to do so. 

I shall devote the rest of this letter to examine your invective against the infallihlt 
Rule of the Holy Spirit speaking in the inspired umiings. Every error and heresy 
has its weak side. Your reasoning betrays this palpably. The radical error, gentle- 
men, in your argument is this : you mistake the nature of the evidence by which this 
point is to be established. You say the Bible cannot prove its own autlienticity : and, 
therefore, it cannot be the Rule of faith. This is an instance of that crafty logic, 
called shifting the question, when it cannot be met ! The fore 3 of your argument is 
this — because a thing does- not perform that which it was not designed to do, therefore, it 
is not ft for the thing for which God madt it! No book proves its own authenticity ; 
we seek not on the pages of the Bible -r^r the proof of its authenticity. Internal evi- 
dence, you ought to know, is not external evidence. We prove the Bible's authenti- 
city by the evidence of antiquity. ( The Jews give their testimony to the Hebrew Bible's 
authenticity ; the primitive christians of the Waldenses and Albigenses, who have an 
unbroken succession of pastors from the apostolic times, give their testimony to it, by 
the tradition of the apostolic evidence : the many tribes of heretics and schismatics do 
give tlieir historical testimony to the genuine aud authentic books of the Bible : the 
Romish Chiurch gives its testimony to it historically. Thus friends and foes unite in 
their historical testimony. We have, moreover, the evidence of miracles testified to, 
the evidence of prophecy in these books, fulfilled, and now fulfilling. Thus, we prove 
the authenticity of the scriptures by txternal evidence ; and, finally, by internal evi- 
dence. See Home's Introduction, vol. 1., and other works on the canon of Scripture. 

And this e\'idence being complete,the perfect evidence of the inspiration of the Bible 
is the perfect evidence of its being the onl}- infallible Rule of faith. 

I pray you, gentlemen, try your objections against our Rule, with a deist, and you 
will see your radical mistake. A deist, says — " Dr. Power, I am glad to see your ar- 
guments against these heretics' Bible Rule : I hope that, as a man of sense, you will 
just follow out your own argument. The Bible, you say, cannot prove its own au- 
thenticity ; therefore, it is not the word of God ; it is not inspired ! Nay, Dr. Power, 
the Bible does not prove the existence of God ! Therefore, it is defective, it is not inspi^ 
red."' You would say, — " Sir, I prove the existence of G )d against you and atheists, 
from the works of natiure ; and. Sir, the Bible assumes this that there in a God ; and it 
is he who speaks in it to us." Just so, in reasoning against a deist ; you must prove 
the authenticity of the Bible, not from its own page : for he does not beheve it. You 
must prove it as I have said above, from other arguments : and thus, in opposing a 
deist, you annihilate your own argument against our Rule ! 

You object that the " Bible cannot be the Rule," because bad men and heretics 
sought shelter under it, and made a bad use of it. Profound logic ! The abuse of a 
thing condemns it, then. Hence, as medicine and food have been abused, it is 'v^'icked 
to use them for the end for which God made them ! The gospel itself has been 
abused by heretics ; therefore, it is unfit to bring sinners to Christ. 

Again, you have ventured to object against the Bible being " the Rule," alledging 
that it has originated all the errors, divisions, and schisms, that exist among Protest- 
ants. This objection I hold up before the christian pubhc : and, do solemnly charge 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 11 

on you, Rev. Gentlemen, the crime of slaisdering, and bearing false witness 
AGAINST God's holy scriptures I You charge on God's word the impious errors 
and deeds of sinful men ! The Bible, gentlemen, never originated one error, or heresy ! 
never countenanced them : never approved them ! On the contrary, it solemnly 
condemns every error that springs up ! These errors arose from man's proud con- 
tempt of piety, and their refusal to hear and obey the holy scriptures. Gentlemen : 
what have you said ? Do you deny the Bible to be God's word ? If not, then I re- 
peat it, God speaks in it. You must admit this, or confess yourselves deists ! Now, 
what have you affirmed ? The Bible has originated eiTors ! God himself, by his 
Spirit speaking to men, has originated errors and heresies ! Verily you utter in plain 
words your origin and descent ! 

Let us apply your argument, gentlemen, to the papal Rule. In the bosom of unity 
itself and under the working of "the infallible rule" of the Pope, ten errors, heresies, 
and divisions, have sprung up for every one of the Protestants ! Then where are your 
pretensions to an " infallible Rule !" I appeal to the public, then, whether your 
argument does not involve slander and blasphemy ! 

You object against " the Bible Rule," and say that if it were infallible, as we 
alledge, " why does it not flash on the minds of all ? why are there any deists ?" — 
Verily, gentlemen, you take incredible pains to show off your infallible logic ! If 
this logic will prop up his holiness' throne, the literature of your school will work 
miracles. I shall thus test your objection. A deist says to Dr. Power, — " Sir, — 
the gospel of the Bible, or the system which Christ taught does not flash on the 
minds of all, — nay. Sir, the dictates of your infallible Rule, councils, and popes, 
do not Jlash on the minds of all; there are Turks Jews, and deists within your pale, 
and all around you, therefore the gospel, and even popery itself is a fiction P' How 
will you meet this logic with which you arm the deist ? 

I conclude by calling on you to come out in the defence of your " infallible Rule,'''* 
composed o^ fallible materials. You have been concealing yourselves hitherto, in the 
smoke and dust of deistical objections, against the Bible. The public solicit answer 
to the following questions : — 

What is, in reality your Rule and Judge ? Why do you decorate the apocrypha 
with the honors of inspiration, since even the authors of these books never took it into 
their heads to claim it ; or to be prophets. See Mac. iv. 46. ch. ix. 27; but on the con- 
trary craved pardon for errors committed by them ? See 2 Mac. xv. 38, &c. What 
evidence have you that oral traditions were given by Christ for part of the Rule ? 
Where can these traditions possibly be found ? Wlio is your Judge of controversy ? 
Is it the Pope ? Is it a council ? Is it the Pope and council ? Is it Holy Mother 
Church ? What is it you mean, in soberness, by " Holy Mother Church ?" Have 
any of your popes been pagan idolators ? Was Marcellinus ? Which of them here- 
tics ? Was Libcrius the Arian ? Which of them a Nero in vico ? Was Alexan- 
der ? Have you had more than three popes at one time ? Wcrfenhey all muiiially 
doomed ? Were all these the infallible judges and dictalor^'f IVtTing succos ^ors'iof 
the Apostles, you must sustain your claims by aposrtoltcai!llfcv!dfc'iti6'c,'orible iniiM)stm«l 
Have you had no errors, no divisions, no schisms, iii'yoilV'tindifir'tti'ftl v<iryii*yoi'^f 
infallibility? Whence lias it hay)iyt^bka,/-4lWdUlH^,-l^idiMf*illri^k\W^k'i'<W,«^tMtMiiV^ 
libility did not settle th(> imih\idMle^,^hlh iion^in\mni*km^y ^^^^^^ 
Mary ; and the brawls;' '^ild'''t^ff(A•^^■'tliUtW^lly'(ihil^^e<t'<h^^^c*^•^UM11W^^ 
and Jesuits: Franci^tf^'%i^'^b^toii^««^1^ V^Okn^'^^^'^ttett^risMlVrV ^^ibt^J^i^^^ir 



12 ROMAJf CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

your Rule, viz. the universal consent of the fathers, can possibly be found ; as it i^ 
not on the pages of their endless contradictions ? Do not your Rule and judge, 
being human beings, take away liberty of conscience, and put it in the pope and 
priest's keeping ? And, finally, does not your " infallible Rule'' require all devout 
Catholics, absolutely to believe things contrary to, and contradicted by, the positive 
evidence of all their senses 1 Namely, that by a certain sacerdotal process, a wafer 
is converted into the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ ! 

Meet these questions fairly, and honestly, as logicians, and theologians ! And I 
shcdl pay my respects to your Rule, and your defence of it, in my next. One word to 
my friends : this, I call only skirmishing ; for I am pressed for want of time. I pro- 
pose to 6egtn the controversy with my learned opponents, soon, in good earnest. 

I am, Gentlemen, Yours, &c. 

New York, Feb. 18, 1833. W. C. Brownlee. 



TO THE REV. DR. VARELA. 



Rev. Sir : — The unique letter which you have done me the honor of addressing Xo 
sne, would have been highly amusing, had it not been for its uncompromising spirit 
of deism ! 

What amused me, was the manner of 3'our retreat from the present discussion, after 
you had signed your pledge to stand by your Rev. Brethren. I knew that my kind 
hearted neighbor, Dr. Varela, was a curious antiquarian as well as a classic scholar. 
And he has been studying the antiquated Parthian character. These ancient wor- 
thies, when in \dew of the enemy, would retreat at full gallop ; but in their retreat 
they always discharged a shot or two, ^xixh their bows and arrows. So friend Varelar 
Parthian like, retreats ; but fires off an epistle, from his retreat, before he gives me 
Ms " farewell," and " leaves me in good hands !" 

But, Sir, you should not have retreated ; you should have remained firm to your 
pledge. It is true, you could not brook such letters as those which the other two 
priests are inflicting on the public taste. But you were pledged, and you should not 
have retreated. 

It is painful to see a gentleman of your age and experience, advocating the leading 
principle of Deism ! Paine and Hume would have cordially acceeded to, and ap- 
plauded your sentiments against the Holy Bible. You and they pronounce it unfit, 
and too imperfect, to be the Rule of Faith/ I appeal to the Christian community, 
whether it is not obviously the spirit of infidelity that you advocate. 

1st. You ask, — "Where in the scriptures do you find that the scriptures are the 
only Rule of faith ?" This I have already sho\\Ti in my two letters. See Psalms xix ; 
Prov. XXX. 5, 6 ; Isaiah viii. 19, 20 ; 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17; Rev. xxii. 18, 19, &c. 

2d. You demand, " From what scriptures were the scriptures beheved, w^hen they 
were first written ?" The Scriptures were beheved by the people of God, on the satia- 
factory evidence which the inspired prophet or apostle produced, to estabhsh hiB 
commission from heaven. His miracles and predictions showed that God sent him; 
and then, his words and his writings were believed to be from God. The scriptures are 
beheved on account of their external, as well as their internal evidence. I am aware 
of the radical error tmder which you and the other Priests labor. It is this, — you be- 
live that the Bible has no evidence^ and no authority ^ but just that which the Pope and 



iflOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVE&SY. 13 

tilt Romish Church choose to give to it! You will not allow even God himself to 
speak to us, but jast as the Pope pleases. This is the fundamental error of the Ro- 
mish church ! But the world is now too enlightened to submit to such Gothic ideas! 

3. You say, — " Not the scripture, but its interpretation forms the different creeds of 
different Protestant sects. Hence these interpretations are real articles of faith. 
Now what scripture have Protestants for these interpretations ?" 

I reply, — God does, indeed, speak plainly and clearly in the scriptures ; the Chris- 
tian apprehends his will and mind without difficulty. But it is equally certain that 
men of perverse minds do not apprehend them aright. Hence the origin of error. 

Now, the design of our creed is not, as you conceive, to substitute a human rule, 
in the place of the divine rule ; but simply to detect, and keep out errorists from the 
fold of Christ. We say " here is the holy Bible." The false teacher says " I take it as 
it is, as my rule." We reply, " No, you do not receive it in truth, unless you receive 
it in this precise sense and meaning, in which the church of Christ receives it, and 
has expressed it in her canons." If man were never false, we should probably not 
need these tests. 

These articles of faith are not wholly expressed in the language of scripture : they 
could not be a test if they were. But then every doctrine of faith contained in them 
is carefully taken from the Bible : not one new idea is added : nothing is taken away. 
And, in all cases, the scriptures are our only and perfect rule by which all these 
canons and articles are themselves tried. You ask, "what scripture we have for all 
this?" I answer,— 1 John iv. 1: " Beloved, believe not every spirit : but try tlie 
spirits whether they be of God," 

" 4. You ask, if the scriptures be so plain, why do Protestants explain it ? Why 
do you preach ?" 

Here you bring forward the leading tenet of Popery, namely, the scriptures are 
so obscure that no man can explain or understand them, but the pope and his priests. 

I beg to ask you. Sir, this question, — "Do you, or do you not, believe that the 
scriptures were given by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost ? If you do not, you are 
a deist ! If you do, then you admit that the Hol}^ One speaks to us in them. If he 
does, then you will admit that He means to be understood. And yet you have the 
boldness to charge tlie Holy Spirit with intentional obscurity and darkness, so that his 
own subjects cannot understand him ! " Why do we preach them ?" Why, to train 
up God's people by instruction, by prayer, and praise ; and to make the authoritative 
offer of the gospel to sinners ; and administer the sacraments to the faithful. May I 
not tetort on iou ? Why do Romish priests preach, since they have a living, speak- 
ing, infalliblo'-rule, the pope ? 

" 5. The rule of your faith is, that the scriptures must be understood and obsen-ed 
according to private judgmcnit, and not precisely according to the judgmcat of tht; 
church." I am sorry that you give such palpable proofs of being utterly unacquaint- 
ed with the opinions and dogmas of Protestants. I exhort you to remember the ^•alu- 
able proverb, that before we speak or write on a subject, toe should know something' 
about it ! You ought to know, 1st, that what you state here, is not true. The Pro- 
testant churches do not so understand the scriptures. 2d. By the Reformation, wo 
regained from gliostly tyranny, the rights of conscience and private jiidgnunit. We 
think and judge for ourselves : we do not manage religion by proxy, as the pope's 
subjects do : wc do not trust our unalienable rights of conscience and private judgment 
to the supervision of a ghostly impostor, nor accecpt his vaptuing guarantee ol' 

3 



14 ROMA> CAXriOLiC CO.NTKO Vf:R3T. 

heaven. We cannot believe with the duke of Brunswick, that " a priest can be 
accepted in our stead, should we be condemned for becoming papists." The priestly 
guarantee of heaven is copied from the model of that personage, who, with equal 
boldness, offered our Lord the whole world if he would worship him ; while, in fact, 
he did not possess one foot square of its whole surface ! Indeed, we deem the insult 
offered to us, by those priests, who profess to hold tha judgment and consciences of men 
under their entire control ; and who denounce " the fire of purgatory," and " the 
wrath of God, and St. Peter, and St. Paul," on all v/ho shall dare read the Bible, 
or even think for themselves on matters of religion, — to be the greatest insult offered 
to our species ! 3d. A gentleman of your reading ought to know what is a subject 
of historical record, namely, — that no private individuals, but the pastor, or bishops, 
and elders of the Reformed churches, met in councils, far purer and holier than the 
council of Trent : and emitted our canons and confessions of faith, which they esta- 
blished by copious and infallible extracts from the scriptures. And yet this judg- 
ment of the church of God is gravely pronounced by you a private judgment ? 

I beg leave to charge publicly on your church, Sir, the crime of having long per- 
verted a text of St. Peter. I allude to his words in the second epistle, Chap. i. 20, 
21. " No PROPKECT of the scriptures is of any private interpretation, &:c." St. Peter 
here speaks of prophecy, and of that alone. But your sect. Sir, has all along com- 
mitted the inexcusable error of making the apostle say,—" No scripture is of any 
private interpretation." I call on Dr. Varela, as an honest man, to put a speedy end 
to this scandalous imposition upon Roman Catholic laymen. If you do not, — then 
let your laymen judge of their priests' honor and honesty ! 

" 6. Why did not Luther and Melancthon on one side, and Cahin and Zuinglius 
on the other, agree upon the meaning of these plain words — this is my body ? Who 
have the spirit ?" 

I reply, — they have tlie Spirit who adhere the closest to the plain doctrine of the 
Bible, and to common sense. Had Luther shaken off", at once, all the monkish absurdi- 
ties, he would have believed not only that no wafer could be made into a God, but 
that no ivafer cotild contain God, or his presence ! 

But, Sir, I have already replied to this, and shown your radical error in this mode 
of conducting an argument. Can it be possible, Sir, that you do not know that an 
" infallible ride and judge''' really do not secmre the infallibihty of all those who may 
happen to use that rule ? 

Are you infallible, because the pope is your head and keeps yoiur conscience ? Are 
all the Catholics in New York infallible 1 Do your own " infallible rule" and 
*' living, speaking judge," actually make every son of Holy Mother infallibly armed 
against all vice, and all error, and heresy ? 

7. You assail us about " the various and different translations of the Bible in 
Protestant countries." Each nation has its own tongue and idiom ; and hence there 
may be shades of difference in the expression. But not one doctrine, — not one idea 
is altered, or perverted by any of all the translations of the Reformed churches. Be- 
sides, Dr. Varela, you ought to know, that the Hebreio and the Greek are the infallible 
standards, and the last resort in all disputed translations. But, Sir, it is amazing to 
hear tou, or any of 3'our church attack our translations, — when the "infallible coun- 
cil of Trent" has sanctioned the Latin Vulgate as the only one to be used. And every 
Hebrew and Greek scholar in Christendom knows that the Vulgate, as it note is, — i« 

THE VERY worst OF THE WORST TRANSLATIONS ! 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 15 

S. You expatiate, as usual, " on the differences and divisions of the Protestants." 
1 have replied twice to this already. This is the stereotype declamation of the priests, 
in *' Holy Mother." Now, this comes with the worst grace from a Roman Catholic. 
For every otie error and division among Protestants, there are at least, ten errors, divi- 
iions, and heresies, in the very bosom of unity herself. I ask you, Sir, are you a 
Jansenist ? Or a Jesuit ? A Dominican ? Or a Franciscan ? Is your infallible 
rule in the pope ? Or is it in a council I Or in the pope and council ? Or in 
*' Holy Church ?" Here is a fatal division of four of your sects within your church, 
touching this first essential doctrine ! To which of all these sects do you belong ? 
And finally, if you have infallibility, somewhere, why does it not come out, and 
settle these brawls and heresies in what you call your "holy, one, undivided church?" 

" 9. Can the law be the judge ? Who applies it ? Are the scriptures the law ? 
Can they be the judge ?" I reply, again, the scriptures are the law and rule ; and 
the Holy Ghost, speaking to us in them, is the Judge. Sit down at Christ's feet, Dr. 
Varela, and listen, and receive his law, and his rule. But, if you did so, — alas ! what 
a havoc would you make of your oral traditions and councils : your pope and cardi- 
nals, all must go ; and even " the idols must be thrown to the moles and the bats !" 

" 10. Private spirit is fallible, can it be the judge of an infallible faith ?'" I reply, 
that you misrepresent us. The Holy Spirit speaks to us infallibly true. And we can 
take up his holy mind and will, more readily and easily, than your priests can take up 
the mind and luill of " the infallible'''' and divided popes and councils ! ! Permit me 
to ask you : How many fallihhs in a pope and council, will go to make up one 
INFALLIBLE ? Solvc this problem, before the christian public. If you can, you will 
work a miracle on your own behalf! 

*' 11. Private spirit is unknown but to him who possesses it; can it be the known 
rule of faith that will gather men in one infallible faith and religion." — The private 
or interior spirit never was advocated, or even allowed to exist in the bosom of the 
Protestant churches. False prophets and fanatics have ever been ejected from the 
fold of Christ. Your charge against us here, is either unintelligible, or, pardon me, it 
is wilful slander ! The Romish church, as every well read man knows, has been 
the steady patron o{ fanatics, and the interior spirit ! Witness your Tanquelmus, and 
the Amauri, and the Whip per s, in whose processions such royal fanatics as the king 
of France, and the Cardinal Lorraine have more than once joined to patronize the 
interior spirit. See Boileau's Hist, of the Flagel. chap. 23. And, finally, your own 
preacher Taulerus exhibited his fanatical effusions at Cologne in A. D. 1346. Thes^ 
sermons were published in various places ; and originated almost every fanatica). 
acct in Holland, France, and Britain, after the Reformation ! 

" 12. The spirit is your key to open the mysteries of tlie scriptures, but what 
sign have you to distinguish the true from the evil spirit ?" I have just answered 
this charge of fanaticism. Those who have claimed immediate inspiration, and gave 
their signs, and wrought their miracles, were the fanatics who sprung up in " Holy 
Mother's" bosom, and poured their deluges of outrageous folly over the land. They 
were uniformly ejected by all the Protestant churches. Your charge, brought against 
Luther and Calvin, that they professed to work miracles, and raise the drad, is copi- 
ed from the pages of the wretched liolsec ; not one of whose statements even a Roman 
priest ever believed. For you know that that man was such an atrocious apostate, 
that he was excluded from even your communion ; and he died under " Holy Mo- 
Uier's" ban ! 



16 ROMAjr CATHOLIC C05TR0VEKST. 

" 13. How can you prove a man to be a heretic, if he has the same rule of faith 
with you, and the same right to apply it ?" To this I reply that it is no difficult mat- 
ter to convict a man who is a heretic. For instance, the word of God teaches us that 
he is a heretic who makes a man, St. Peter, for instance, the foundation of the church, 
instead of Christ! He is a heretic who makes a man the head of the church, 
instead of Christ ! He is a heretic who bows down to stocks and stones, and 
prays to dead men, and dead women ! He is a heretic who believes that purgatory, and 
not Christ's blood, purges away our sins! He is a heretic who makes a god, prays 
to him, — and then eats him up ! All this the Bible tells us very plainly. He may 
indeed say that he adheres to the Bible also, as his rule. But it is an easy matter to 
make it manifest that his monstrous heresy is not countenanced by the Bible. And 
then by witnesses, we can prove that the man does hold, and teach these revolting 
errors. He may swagger and assume high airs, and call himself '■''a holy priest,"' 
and " is no less than infallible,'''' and " can open heaven, and shut'xtJ''' Poor man ! this 
only proves that he labors under a spiritual madness. The fact is, we can, in a 
church court, convict him of heresy, notwithstanding all his delusions and wildness, 
just as easily as we can a murderer in a court of justice. I hope I have fairly answered 
you. 

" 14. Can any man learn by himself, from the scriptures, every essential point of 
faith, without any fear of error?" I answer, yes; he can learn, without error, all 
that Christ has revealed, for our salvation. But he can find there none of all the 
essential doctrines of the Roman Catholic church. For the Bible never contained 
them, and Christ never taught them ! Finally, I reply in the words of St. Paul, — . 
" All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, &c., and 
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to all good works.'''' 

I shall not follow you, at present, through your quotations from the writings of the 
Reformers. You know, and all the world knows, that these Protestants solemnly 
condemned the errors of popery to which you cling ; and wrote unanimously against 
them. With what degree of honor, or honesty, you profess to quote in favor of your 
errors, men publicly known as their avowedly greatest enemies, I shall leave the pub- 
lic to judge. " Give me permission," said an eminent partizan of the Romish church, 
" to select scraps from the pages of the best writer in France, and 1 shall soon have 
him hanged for high treason !" 

Farewell, Dr. Varela : I reciprocate your kindness, and " leave you in good hands." 
May God bless you, and save you by his grace. 

Yours very truly, and respectfully. 
W. C. B. 



LETTER m. 

TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS, 

" Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram ! 
Quale per iiicertam lunam, sub luce maligna, 
Est iter in sylvis." — Virg. 

Rev. Gentlemen : — The elegant Roscoe relates that a certain laconic senate in 
Italy, condemned a man for employing* three words where two only should have been 
used. And their sentence doomed him to one of two punishments : namely, — to go 
to the galleys for life, or to read through the verbose work of Guiciardini. The cul- 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 17 

prit chose the latter. But having fairly choked on the first page ;— he begged his 
punishment to be commuted to the galleys for life. 

It is not difficult to conceive your certain fate, if brought to this bar. And your 
punishment would lie between the choice of the galleys, and the reading and digest- 
ing of your extraordinary letters ! 

Verbosity is not your only besetting sin. There is something else in it, which a 
man of delicate and refined taste, would, with McGavin, call "billingsgate ;" or in 
the words of Dr. Chalmers, " blackguardism." Yet, in charity it may be only a 
wild burst of emotions from consciences stricken by the force of truth. I shall extract 
one sentence as a specimen of your first two columns ; and leave it without remark. 
" In it," that is, my letter, — " there is the strut of the bully ! the gasconade of the 
coward ! the subterfuge of the dissembler ! the trick of the partizan ! the pretensions 
of the sciolist! the petulence of the sour Calvinist! the malignant zealotry of the 
Puritan!" 

You have volunteered a confession of "the inspiration, authenticity, and genmne-> 
ness of the holy scriptures." You say, — " 7Ve deny not the inspiration of the scnp-> 
tures ;" — " }Ve hold the scriptures to be an infallible rule^ 

I am sorry that there is room for saying that a palpable deception is practised in 
these terms. The word " scriptures'''' has a very different meaning in the Roman 
Catholic's vocabulary, from that of the Protestant's. All the world knows that in the 
belief of the Protestant, the books of the Old Testament, and those of the New, in the 
Hebrew and Greek, rendered accurately into our vernacular,- — and nothing else than 
these, constitute the holt scriptures. 

But in your creed, gentlemen, you add to the inspired books, the human writings 
and fictions, called the Apocrypha : and then all these must be used in the Latin false 
version, called the Vulgate. This is not all; you add oraZ traditions, of unknown and 
doubtful origin; and, moreover the unanimo\is consent of the fathers ! All these con- 
stitute your "scriptures:" and this is what you always intend when you speak of 
the scriptures ! And to consummate the difference between us. You denounce the 
private christian's unalienable right to read the Bible, and to learn the meaning of 
God's Spirit speaking plainly and clearly unto him. You deny, and even ridicule 
the claims of the private rights of judgment. You treat with bitter sarcasm the 
christian's liberties of conscience. You have usurped power over the conscience, and 
deny that any man has a right from God, even to think for himself on religion, with- 
out license from a priest ! Hence, you not only set up a new rule, and invent new 
scriptures ; but you erect a novel tribunal to dictate to men's consciences the mean- 
ing of the "scriptures!" This new tyrant is — you say, — "a visible society of men, 
appointed by Christ, called the church of God, — meaning the Romish church ; or the 
pope and his clergy ! And I beg every christian and patriot in the republic to 
examine the claims which our priests set up in behalf of this foreign despot, — " to 
this society of men," say you, " for the final ending of all controversies iu religion, 
all chrislians are hound to adhere and submit their judgment, and their opinions, on 
points of religion ; and this on pain of eternal damnation P'' — Priests' Leltor ii. 

Is not this the climax of pontifical arrogance ; the consummation of fanaticism : 
the full overflowings of the deadly chalice of Popery, — whose master si)inis wore seen 
in visions by John, " trafficing in human souls!" 

I have, iu my last two letters, iu the briefest mainior possible, established the truth 
of the authenticity, aud mspiratioii of the holy scriptures: and, thence, showed shnX. 

3* 



18 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSt» 

this evidence is the perfect evidence of the infallibiUty of the Bible ; in which the 
Holy Ghost, as the infalUble judge, speaks to us- This also, decides the canonicity 
of each of the books, of the holy canon of scripture. Every book established by the 
evidence referred to, is a part of that canon ; and every book which is not sustained 
by this evidence, is not to be received into the canon. We pointed out the radical 
error of Romish writers, on this point. They make the authority and proof of the 
inspiration of the scriptures, to depend on "the church," meaning the Romish 
church ! This is one of their chief and most mischievous errors. It aims a deadly 
blow at divine revelation. But the Bible does, in truth, no more depend on the 
Roman church for the evidence of its divinity, and authority ; than does the sustain- 
ing of the heavens and the earth depend on the pope's nod ! Their divinity and 
inspiration are fully sustained by other, and complete portions of evidence besides 
tradition ; namely internal and external, from the display of miracles, from predictions, 
&c. And we distinctly noticed, and again repeat it, — that, for the tradition, or histo- 
rical evidence of the church, which hands the canon of scripture down, simply as 
a depository, we are as much indebted to the Hebrews, and the Jews ; to the Greek 
church ; to the pure and apostolical church of the Waldenses ; and to the libraries of 
the curious, whether christians or heretics ; as well, and as much as to the church 
of Rome. That this last sect should set up such arrogant pretensions, and claim the 
whole honor of transmitting the Bible, and of giving it all its authority], must be set 
down to sheer knavery, or a derangement in the moral faculty. 

Now, from this evidence, I proved the word of God to be the only infallible rule of 
faith: for it, and it alone, comes from God : and the Holy Ghost speaking to us, is 
the only judge of controversy, in religious matters. And I quoted select passages 
which clearly and distinctly declare the mind of that only judge deciding the contro- 
versy. And these who set themselves in opposition to these texts, and their authority 
are guilty of the crime of setting up the pope as a rival to the Holy Ghost ! I rest my 
appeal with the public. And remember, gentlemen, that the petulent denial that 
you gave to these texts, for argument you have none, was not in proper keeping. You 
have no right to pronounce sentence on one of my arguments : you are neither judge 
nor jury. It belongs to the christian public, to pronounce, finally, on mine, and 
your arguments. 

And by this protestant lesson and logic, to which all priests are, by their habits, of 
course, utter strangers, I trust you will duly profit, and fructify in future. 

You have, with much zeal, endeavored from the outset, to retard vciy approach 
to examine your rule : but now we have it fairly before us ; and though you renew the 
stereotype challenge to stop at certain points, until you be satisfied, I assure you, gentle- 
men, that I have three reasons for rejecting this demand : — 

1. As a Protestant, I will not be dictated to, as to the mode of my argument. For, — 

2. You have not got us into the Inquisition yet : and we Protestants do not view 
with much love, this mode a la Spanish, of joining the sword to the pen. And, 

3. The ivhole question of the rule, is before us, and why do you affect to say that 
I shall discuss only one point, — and not touch your rule, or take in the whole field ? 

Before entering on the dissection of the popish rule and judge, it will be interesting 
to trace the origin of this extravagant dogma, and the real motive which first led the 
partizans of Rome to adopt it. 

Dr. Middleton, in his curious " Letter from Royne,^' has fully and satisfactorily traced 
into the ancient Roman paganism, almost every characteristic rite and ceremony, 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSIV 19 

which the Roman Catholics have introduced into their corrupted system of Christianity » 
The parallel is truly striking, and shall be noticed in due time. But the originating 
cause of her adopting this dogma about the rule of faith, is found solely within the 
bosom of her own ambition. The famous Chillingworfh has traced it with a master's 
hand in the following extract, which will be perused by my readers, with deep 
interest :— 

" He that would usurp an absolute lordship and tyranny over any people^ need not 
put himself to the trouble and difficulty of abrogating, and disannulling the laws 
made to maintain the common liberty : for he may frustrate their intention and com- 
pass his own design as well, if he can get the power and authorithy to interpret 
them as he pleases, and add to them what he pleases, and to have his interpretations 
and additions stand for laws ; if he can rule his people by his laws, and his laws by 
his lawyers. So the church of Rome, to establish her tyranny over men's consciences, 
needed not either to abolish or corrupt the holy scriptures, the pillars and supporters 
of christian liberty, (which in regard of the numerous multitude of copies dispersed 
through all places, translated into almost all language, guarded with all solicitous care 
and industry, had been an impossible attempt :) but the more expedite way, and 
therefore the more likely to be successful, was to gain the opinion and esteem of the 
public authorised interpreter of them, and the authority of adding to them what doc- 
trine she pleased, under the title of traditions, or definitions. For by this means, she 
might both serve herself of all those clauses of scripture which might be drawn to cast 
a, favorable countenance upon her ambitious pretences, which in case the scriptures 
had been abolished, she could not have done, and yet be secure enough of having either 
her power limited, or her corruptions and abuses reformed by them. This being once 
settled in the minds of men, that unwritten doctrines if proposed by her, were to be 
received with equal reverence to those that were written ; and that the sense of scrip- 
ture was not that which seemed to men's reason and understanding to be so, but that 
which the church of Rome should declare to be so, seemed it never so unreasonable 
and incongruous. The matter being once thus ordered, and the holy scriptures 
being made in effect, not your directors and judges, (no farther than you please :) but 
your servants and instruments, always pressed, and in readiness to advance your de- 
signs it is safe for you to put a crown on their head, and a reed in their hands, and 

to bow before them and cry: Hail Khig of the Jews! To pretend a great deal of 
esteem, and respect, and reverence to them." 

I. The Roman Catholic Church cannot pretend, with any show of reason, to j;os- 
sess this " infallible rule," when her greatest men cannot agree among themselves, 
in deciding where this rule exists. Every one knows the endless diversity of senti- 
ment among the Romish writers, touching the point where this infallible power lies. 
I have formerly noticed four distinct sects among them. I have now to add, that one 
class led on by Pighius, Albert, Gretscr, and Bellarmine, and f(jllowed by all the 
Jesuits, place the exercise of infjillible power in the pope, and make him the deposi- 
tory of interpretation. Bellarmine De Pontif. Lib. iv. caj). 3, and cap. 5, says 
" the pope cannot possibly err." The canon law in the gloss, calls the pope, "the 
Lord God." The Bishoj) of Bitonlo, Mussus, has styled him : " Him who is to us as 
our god upon earth." The bishop of Grenada calh^l him, " a god on earth not subject 
to a council." And so late as July, 1809, Pope Pius VH., in excoinnunru'ating "his 
own dear son" Nai)oleon, whonj lie had crowned and blessed, says: "■ We, unwyrthy 
m we are, represent the God of peace !" 



30 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

Another class make the pope an unlimited monarch in spiritual and civil matters. 
This was the sentiment of the councils of Florence, of the Lateran, and of Trent. 
Another class violently oppose this tyranny, and stand up in behalf of the rights of 
councils ; and they assign the pope only the right of presidency. Du Pin, Paola 
and others advocate this ; and they are sustained by the decisions of the councils of 
Pisa, Constance, and Basil. And Pope Eugenius IV. did solemnly for awhile, ac- 
knowledge this. These opinions respect the pope's supremacy, and his infallibility. 

The decretals of Pope Pius I., declare for the rights of bishops against the lordly 
claims of their superiors. " Bishops are accountable only to God." Bellarmine 
opposes this with tierce zeal, and places the pope above all councils, and all tribunals 
on earth, and all law ! To crown the climax, he writes thus: DcPontif. Lib. iv.cap.5. 
''^ If the -pope could so far err, as to command vice and prohibit virtue, the Church would 
be hound to believe vice to be good, and virtue to be bad!'' I can give many more quo- 
tations, were it necessary, out of the canon law, and decretals of Pope Gregory VIII. 
This was the usual style of the ghostly powers in the dark ages. But, now they have 
gradually receded from this folly and impiety, down through the other shades of dif- 
ference, to a " mere presidency of the pope." And Dr. Pise, I heard assert on the 
floor of the Protestant Association, that they owned the pope merely as their " spiritual 
head,'' and rejected him, or rather, never owned him as a temporal prince ! It is true, 
no man who has read the canon law and decretals, can for a moment, believe this 
statement of Dr. Pise. For the pope "infallibly" claims this power and still wear* 
the triple crown. Eellarm. Lib. v. cap. 6. 

Other Romish wiiters have placed councils above the pope : and there have been 
councils that have actually exercised this power. The council of Sinuessane if we 
may believe ancient records, and your Remish annotators, Luke xxii. 21, arraigned, 
tried, and condemned Pope Marcelline for pagan idolatry! T!ie council of Con- 
stance condemned Pope John XXIII. , and that of Basil condemned Pope Eugenius 
IV. 

The assembly of Cardinals and Prelates of France in 1G25, declared that "his 
Holiness the pope is above all calumn}'-, and his faith out of the reach of error I" 
This was the dogma of the Jesuits. " The church " say many writers, and my 
opponents among the rest, "the church is the infallible rule and judge." No; 
says another class ; "the pope alone is judge ;" "The pope is above the Catholic 
church." "No council can touch him," says Pighius. "He is above councils," 
says Bellannine, yet he adds like a holy son of infallibility, "he may be deposed, 
only for heresy." Lib. ii. De pont. Cap. 30. Yes! say several "infallible councils," 
'■'we are above the pope, and can try him, and can depose him, and we have done 
it!" And thus, they suit the action to the word, like honest men ! 

Thus, it is manifest that the leading men of the Roman church are all agreed that 
they have within '■'■the church,''' an infallible rule and judge. But they are at 
endless war among themselves respecting the place w^here it is deposited. We have 
it; tliat is certain; but we cannot tell where it is! Hence Dean Swift observed that 
"really Holy Mother might as well be without an infallible head; as not to know 
where to find him, in time of necessity !" 

But, nevertheless, they agree in a marvellous manner on this point ; namely, — to 
reject unanimously the infallible rule of God our Saviour; and himself as the infal- 
lible Judge. "They are not content with Christ the judge in heaven; and the holy 
scriptures the rule and judge on earth," — says an emment writer, — "but they must 



ROMAN Cx\THOLIC CONTROVERSY. 21 

have another judge ; a visible judge. Like the Israelites, they must have a msible 
god to go before them, — though it were but a calf!''^ 

Let the Roman Cathohcs go then, and try their infalhble rule in the composing 
of their own internal wars and controversies. Let them do thisr before they stalk 
forth as my learned opponents say, in reference to their present warfare, — " armingv 
themselves with a panoply tempered by no terrestrial artist ;" to attack the genius of 
Protestantism in his strong holds. It will be well for them, if, like the hero Don 
Quixotte, they meet only a windmill, in a siinilar illusion of the brain ! 

II. What the Roman Catholic church claims as the only infallible rule, is a thing 
absolutely beyond the reach of the pope, or any council. It is positively impractica- 
ble of application by mere mortals ! 

Were it not for the impiety of the thing, it were a piece of pleasant humor to hear 
a Roman priest descanting about the obscurity of the Bible ; and melting into pathos 
about the impossibility of God's own rational creatures understanding a plain and 
luminous message of the gospel from their Creator ! Now, in opposition to all his 
declamation, it is evident that the priest never feared, nor even believed the obscurity 
of the Bible. It is because it is " so small a book,'"' and of such easy access ; and because 
it is so plain and clear, that he does fear it ; and labour to keep it out of the hands of 
the laity. If it were obscure, it would do " Holy Mother" no harm! 

But, let anyone look at the "infallible rule" of the Catholic Church! 1st. if 
includes the scriptures, with the apocrypha, with all its fictions and indecencies. Now, 
I tell you, gentlemen, the pope, and your church can no more wield the sword of the 
spirit, and fix infallible interpretations ; and subdue the human soul ; and produce 
faith ; and create a new heart in man ; and convey divine grace, — all which our infal- 
lible word, and judge do, — than they can create a new Ireland; or even cleanse the 
Augean stable of his Holiness's court at Rome ! 

This is not all. — In your rule, and as an essential part of it, you reckon all the acts, 
and decisions of "Holy Mother Church." — These are deposited, in, at least, 8 folio 
volumes of the Popish Bulls: in 10 folio volumes of Decretals: in 31 folio volumes 
of Acts of Councils; in 51 folio volumes of the Doings and Sayings of the Saint's, — 
"i'Acta Sanctorum." And add to all this, at least 35 volumes of the Greek and Latin 
fathers ; in which are to be found that part of your rule called the unanimous consent 
of the fathers. And to all this chaos of unread, unexamined, unimagined materials, 
you add the almost houndlesa list o[ unwritten traditions, which, like the learned Ger- 
man's book, contain "observations and dogmas on all things, — and something* 
besides :" — -traditions which have floated down on the wind, and the miasmatic air of 
Rome for nearly ] 260 years! 

All these cumbrous and enormous additions made to the holy scriptures, constitutt^ 
the Roman Catholic rule : the pope is judge. This judge must know the holy Bible 
infallibly and wliolly: he must be minutely, perfectly, and infaUibly ac(piainted with 
all the above named 135 foho volumes : he must know infallibly all (heir unknowable 
contents: reconcile all their irreconcilable contradictions: know minutely, and infal- 
libly, all the cases, and wants of all his dear flock, namely, the cardinals, })rclates, 
priests, and lay subjects; ho must know the hearts of all; and be able to send light 
into the human mind, and uprightness into the liuman conscience: ho must know the 
merits, perfectly, of each contending parti/.an, and order of friars; and set forth, in 
a plain, clear, and luminous page, every truth U) settle disputes; so that if the combat- 
Rflits 4o pot see it, his infaUibU rule njay yet cgavince and couvert all the predestiuateU 



52 ROMAN CATHOLIC COytROVERSt. 

children of heaven! And, finally, as the first step towards his evidence of doing alt 
the rest, he must write down as clearly, as by a sun beam, the place where the long 
sought for, the terra incognita ; the undiscovered, and undiscoverable land of infalli- 
bility and supremacy, can be found ! That is, your infallible judge must begin by 
conquering an absolute impossibility ; and this being achieved, he must show proof 
further, bytriumphantly proceeding- to conquer ten thousand impossibihties ; annually, 
and hourly, and each passing moment, day and night! 

This being manifestly the true state of the case, one is almost tempted to think the 
claims of the Romish church to one infallible head or judge only, to be quite moderate 
and modest! I am persuaded that, in order to know infallibly the Hebrew text, and 
the Greek text ; and all the different sentiments and doctrines contained in these 135 
folio volumes ; and to digest and arrange all the oral traditions : and bring the unani- 
vious consent out of the fathers, where no consent ever existed, — not even ten millions 
of popes, such as the luxurious and etfeminate things, which have reigned in Roma 
under the name of popes, could do the ten millionth part required of this rule ! 1 1 

Nay, I must put the case stronger still ; none but Almighty God has the attribute of 
infallihility : none but God can reveal to the church his own word: none can be the 
lord of the conscience, but our Creator : and he is supreme Lord thereof. And there 
can be no more any inferior, or subordinate lord of the conscience, as my opponent* 
affirm, than there can be a rival to the Almighty on the throne of our hearts, ajid on his 
throne in heaven ! None can be judge and rule of faith, but he alone who can create 
a new heeirt in us; and make us true christians, even the Great God, who, indeed, 
uses men as pastors, and to be our spiritual teachers and ad\isers ; but who alone knows 
all the secrets of the souls of all men : and who alone con\TLnces and converts. Ht 
alone can be the judge ; and his word alone can be our rule. And those who set up 
these counter claims, we repeat it, must either be Jesuitical knaves, using false and 
wicked pretences to gain an ascendency over the souls, bodies, and goods of men; or 
else, they are deranired in the moral faculty ! This claim set up by the pope, and the 
priests, reminds me of a saying of a maniac in the Philadelphia Asylum, " People think 
me idle here, in my cloister, or dungeon cell, in this easy old bachelor life, which I am 
leading ! But, alas ! for the ignorance of mankind I Be it known, that I keep in motion 
the balance wheel of heaven : but for me, aU nature would stand still I" 

The pope's claims are fully as extensive and extravagant. He absolutely affects to 
do, in the spiritual world, in the church, in purgatory, and in heaven, what the ma- 
niac believed he did in the natural world ! The pope keeps the balance wheel of 
heaven in motion ; but for him, all illuminations, and all efficacies of grace, and all 
conversions, and all dehverances from sin, and all emancipation from purgatory ; and 
entrances into heaven, will cease and stand still ! ! And thus " as God, he sitteth in 
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God!" 

This is the commencement of our argument against your rule. I shall here pause, 
in order that I may pay my respects to you, in a re\aew of the leading errors and mis- 
statements in your last letter. 

1. You charge me wiih a want of unity in my last letter. I assure you there is 
strict logical unity in it. I laid down my rule of faith ; defended it ; and closed by 
showing that every objection you brought against our rule, operated ten times more 
severely against your rule. This was the reason why I noticed the errors, heresies, 
and division in your church. 

But 2, There is an error in your statement, which I shall bring before the public ; 



I 



R031AN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY- 23 

for I frankly tell you that I have no hope that you will correct it. It is a mis-statement 
copied, as usual from Milner's End of Religious Controversy. It is the standing error, 
the stereotype misrepresentation of the Roman Cotholic writers ; and is repeated by 
every little scribe which undertakes the defence of " Holy Mother." It is this : You 
never give our own definitions, nor a fair description of the Protestant rule. 

We have repeatedly stated that our only infallible rule is the scriptures : and the 
only infallible judge is the Holy Spirit, speaking to us in them. — And these words of 
God are interpreted by his own words in other passages ; that is, — the Spirit speaking 
in the word, interprets it to his church. And hence, it is a proverb in the lips of all 
Protestants, that the Bible, or the Spirit speaking in the Bible, is its own best inter- 
preter. All Protestants have solemnly denied that their rule is the Bible as explained 
by private interpretation ; or as understood by every private individual! And yet with 
these denials before his eyes, Milner asserts this falsehood over and over ag-ain, in his 
End of Religious Controversy. You gentlemen, have repeated and propagated this 
same slander. You invariably tell your followers what every one knows to be false, 
tliat the Protestant's Rule is their Bible as interpreted by private judgment, or "the 
interior Spirit." Indeed, your whole argument throughout is based on this unmanly 
misrepresentation ! 

Your error has arisen from mistaking our declarations, touching private judgment. 
We affirm that in the "ever blessed Reformation," we achieved "the right of pri- 
vate judgment," to think for ourselves and choose our religion. Not even an infant 
scholar is so ignorant as to think of hiring a priest to keep his conscience, and settle his 
spiritual accounts with his Maker, for money ! 

But we carefully teach our people, that while they have this rig*ht of private judg- 
ment, in regard to man ; they are bound by God's word to believe all that He says, 
and do all that He commands: that they have no right before God to take the Bible in 
any sense different from the mind of the Spirit of God speaking in it. That is, not by 
by private interpretation ; but by the Bible's own explanation of itself are they to be 
guided. 

I beg the particular attention of my readers to this point. It is this solution which 
neutralizes all the Roman Catholic priests' objections. And this explanation, we 
cannot prevail on their candor, to observe. It is a pitiful cause, which requires ite 
defendants to lay down a false statement, as the opinion of his opponent, that he 
may, in the estimation of the ignorant, reap laurels by fighting against a man of straw, 
or, to use my opponent's elegant allusion, "couching a lance against a windmill !" 
As for John Wesley, it is not in my way, nor yours either, to drag in the name 
of that venerable rnan into our controversy. Your arguments, however, take in a 
wide range. You start an idea, and there is no saying where you end ; ae Cow- 
per says, you — 

" Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark; 

Through Gaul, through Greece, and into Noah's ark." 

Gentlemen : you ought, in honor, to quote the avowed creeds and confessions of the 

church. No society is accountable for the private opinions of its members, while they 

are innocent speculations. Your ({notation from Wesley is ])ervertod by you to a wrong 

sense. You can extract no Romanism out of it. He simply declares the way he took 

by prayer and study, to discover the meaning of the Biblo, Go you and do likewise : 

and be entreated to tread lightly on the ashea of John Wesley, and similar worthies, for, — 

"If christian worth in heaven rise, 
Ye'll mend ere ye come near him !" 



24 Rt)MAN CATHOLIC CONTllOVERSY. 

4. You also quote from the judicious Hooker, and Dr. Field^s *'Book of the chiii'ch." 
Now you know well, gentlemen, that no two men wrote with more vigor and effect 
against popery than these. And it is disgraceful in a literary man, to torture an idea 
out of an author, contrary to tlie whole spirit and tenor of his work. The quotation 
you give from Hooker, Eccles. Polity, p. 119, is nothing to your purpose; he simply 
rebukes ignorant and obstinate errorists "whose capacity will scarce serve them to ut- 
ter j^ve words in a sensible manner," — and who, without any authority, set themselves 
up as teachers, and propagate " gross and palpable errors." And the sentence you 
give from Field, simply declares that " the holy Bible is, in each passage, to be 
explained according to the analogy of faith," and " the general practice of the church," 
in her purest times. 

You quote Dr. Field as favoring your heresy ; of course you will be pleased with the 
following, out of the same book you quote : " The pope is above general councils ; and 
he is 7iot above them; the pope may err judicially; the pope cannot err judicially; the 
pope is temporal lord of all the world ; the pope is not temporal lord of all the, &c. The 
virgin Mary was conceived in sin ; she was not conceived in sin. If there be no con- 
tradiction here, then all Roman priests declare the same doctrine !" 

You also quoted jBwZ/iwger, folio 71,_72, cap. 15, and the author of '^Scripture and 
the church,'''' with Hooker, sec. xiv. p. 86. These teach us, you justly say, that "the 
church of God is endued with the spirit;" and that "we could not believe the gospel 
were it not that the church taught us, and witnessed that this doctrine was delivered by 
the apostles." Luther, on John xvii. also says that " if he had not received the word of 
God from the Catholic church, he should have known nothing about it." 

These exhibit the sentiments of all the Reformed churches respecting one branch of 
tlie evidence of divine truth ; that is tradition and testimony of the church ; the holy 
Catholic church. But you have, as usual, fallen into a very natural and selfish error. 
These writers say the church of God — the Catholic church did this : they did not once 
say the Roman Catholic church. And it was sheer bigotry that dragged you into 
the error. It is tune, in all conscience, that you learned to know the immeasurable 
difference betv een these two societies, — The Holy Catholic Church of God, and the 
Roman Catholic church of the pope ! 

5. I noticed not your former remark on the character of Luther ; and I was un- 
willing to be drawn aside from the main argument : besides, this is personal abuse, 
not argument. But were even Luther and Calvin, and other reformers, the mon- 
sters you wish to represent them, this affects not the question in discussion. We 
never made these men our living, speaking rule ! I quoted your profane popes and 
heretical councils, quite in point; and also the errors and divisions of " Holy Mother 
church," for the best reasons in the world. These you make your living, speak- 
ing, and infallible rule ! Surely, if I demonstrate the errors and heresies of your 
infallible judges, I annihilate your rule. But as our rule is the scriptures, and our 
judge of controversy, the Holy Ghost speaking in them, not as understood by "pri- 
vate interpretation," but as interpreted by God, speaking in them to us, surely all 
your invectives against the Refoimers are utterly irrelevant matter. But since you 
stoop so low as to reiterate these personalities, I shall vindicate these Reformers here. 
Gentlemen, you furnish us another proof, that a Roman priest cannot breathe, nor 
eat, nor drink, nor exist, without slandering good old Luther, and the other worthies 
of the Reformation! It has been their very aliment to slander them. This glorious 
and splendid achievement of the Reformers, owned and blessed of Almighty God, in 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 25 

giving civil and religious liberty, as well as pure Christianity, to every nation of Eu- 
rope, who would embrace it, has ever been painful and mortifying to your sect. 
Their name seems to inflict pain on a priest's and on a monk's heart, as acutely as when 
the steel touches the bare nerve ! Do you remember the saying of your own Eras- 
mus? What made the Romish priests so malignant against Luther, was this : — "he 
touched the pope's crown and the priest's belly !" 

You asserted that Luther rejected the epistle of James, and that to the Hebrews. 
This I solemnly deny ; and every theologian knows that your assertion is false ! If 
you really knew no better, it was inexcusable in you to write on the subject : if you 
did know what I have now asserted, it displays a criminal, but powerless attempt to 
injure the hero of the reformation, whose fame is increasing every year ! The truth 
is this : when Luther was yet half a monk, and had his eyes only half opened to the 
light of protectant truth, " he spoke lightly" of James's Epistle. But afterwards, 
when he became a thorough divine, he advocated that epistle, as well as all the rest. 
See Home's Introd. vol. iv. p. 412, note. And they were accordingly inserted by 
him in the canon. 

Some time ago, a slander was thrown out by a Romish priest, in the Protestant 
Association. But it met with a detection, and caused no enviable feelings to the 
slanderer. He asserted that he had a quotation from Luther's own works, in which 
that Reformer is made to confess, that "he had been an impure, wicked, and licen- 
tious man." But, as usual, in Roman Catholic quotations by priests, the quoter 
stopped short in the middle of Luther's sentiment. And how was the slanderer con- 
founded when he was helped, by a skilful accoucheur, a friend of mine, to deliver him- 
self of the rest of the sentence! — namely: "All this I was," says Luther, "while I 
was a Roman Catholic and a monk ; but now I am, by the grace of God, what I am!" 

I would call the attention of the Lutheran church to a valuable work which some of 
their learned men should give to the public in English, — I mean Dr. Melchior Nicho- 
las's Vindication of Martin Luther, published by professor Wolfflin, of the colleo-e of 
Tubingen, A. D. 1663. He records the seven chapters of slander against Luther, by 
the Jesuit Forerus; and gives a triumphant refutation of each one of them. Every 
thing which my opponents copy out of Mumford, relative to Luther, I find extracted 
from Forerus — stripped of his decency, and modernized by vulgarity. 

In a particular manner is the slander refuted, that Luther admitted himself to have 
been a pupil of the devil, in his sentiments touching the mass ! The amount of the 
affair is this : Luther was, on a time, tempted to despair of divine mercy ; the thoughts 
that rushed in upon his distracted mind, he conceived to be the immediate suggestions 
of the devil. And the devil tempted him to this despair by this thought : " Hoiv can 
there he hope for you, a wretch, ivho celebrated the abominable mass for no less than 
fifteen years T"" This is all that Satan is sui)posed, by the priests, to have taught 
Luther. But it was, in fact, his own illumined conscience, lashed into horror, at 
the retrospect of the horrid initpiity of celebrating the infamous mass, and sustaining 
popery so long ! 

The immortal Calvin is another of the Reformers honored by the outi>()uring of 
your vials of slander on him. And you have revived the malignant fictions of the 
notorious Bolsec relative to the character and actions of John Calvin. It is true, 
no one of you believes tiiese books of monkish fables. Tlw^n; has not lived the priest, 
yet, who has believed his own writings on this matter! Every one of you lias the 
means of knowing them to be sheer fictions. 1 should be guilty of insulting tJic 

4 



( 



SSk JIOMAN CATHOLIC CO^TROVER^T. 

understandings, and the consciences of my three opponents, did I even insinuate that 
they did, themselves, believe them I But it is unmanly, and highlv criminal in men 
of letters and taste, to feed the vile appetite of slander, among a degraded and igno- 
rant community, "the simple faithful," who cannot rtad, and -who thinky and believe^ 
by sacerdotal proxy. 

"I'd sooner be a dog, and bay the moon 

Than such a Roman !" 

And, gentlemen, the notorious Bolstc was the ver\- last man that the sons of'' Holy 
Mother" should quote. He was, as you well know, an apostate Carmelite monk, who 
died under the ban of your church : and so proriligate that he gave his wife to be a 
prostitute to the holy canons of Autun, to regain the Catholics' favor. He was a mis- 
creant hired to slander Calvin and Beza. And, you are fully aware that this was 
his infamous character. See Lemprier. article Bolsec. None but such men as Bohec 
can breathe slander over the memory of such an accomplished scholar, and trans- 
cendant divine ! 

No one of the Reformers has escaped the poisoned breath of your revenge. Your 
church has her '■'Records of judgments on htreiics.'' This is the register of our 
canonized worthies. Priest Hamilton stands first in the fetes of slander : Laing wTites 
what he calls ''the miseraole, horrible, dttestahle, and execrable deaths'' of Luther, Cal- 
vin, and other heretics ! The Sconish catholics graA ely assure us that John Knox's 
head, before he expired, was converted miraculously into a dog's head, with its face 
turned backwards! Hamilton does net make the miracle quite so striking. "The 
opening of John Knox's mouth, while dying," says he, verj' gravel}*, "was drawn 
out to such a length of deformir\-, that his face resembled that of a dog. as his voice did 
the barking of that animal I*' Laing says : *■ He had conmaunings -u-ith the devil, who 
at last carried him oflf bodily !" " Not exactly so," said priest Hamilton, — "when his 
friends came into his chamber, they found his dead body lying prostrate on the 
floor!" 

\Mien priests have the andacir\- to fabricate such a fate for John Knox, who died 
in the presence of his family and friends, and closed a brilUant career, by a most 
triumphant death — ^what will you not fabricate of those who die in your hands, and 
beneath 3"our power ! 

Lastly : — You resuscitate the brutal invectives against the V.'aldenses, the faithful 
descendants of the primitive and apostolical church, lq the vallies of Piedmont, and 
Bohemia. "These," say you, "were the enemies of order, and of the human race. 
These "primitive christians," believed that there ivtre two gods, one good, the other 
bad. They despised the Old Ttstament as the book of the devil. They held marriage 
to be unlawful without considering chastity a virtue ! Such were the execrable tenets 
of the Albigenses which they propagated, like 31ahomet, by plunder, rapine, fire and 
sword." 

Ah! gentlemen, "Old 3Iother Church " has lost none of her ancient \4mlence ; 
although by age, she is becoming feeble and toothless : and as Liw has finely said — 
" Vana sine viribus ira est.'' The world is not to be for ever covered with darkness; 
and a perpetual prey to impostors. Late extensive and learned researches, have 
thrown a clear light over the aspersed characters of those holy mart^-rs of Jesus Christ. 
The ignorant and obscure writers you quote, together with Mosheim, and a few other 
Protestants who permitted tliemselves to be imposed on by Roman inquisitors, are no 
more to be relied on for the character of the Waldenses, than would the records of the 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 27 

Jews, who murdered our Lord, be relied on for His character. What candid man 
would believe the murderous infjuisitors' character of our dear brethren, the martyrs! 
Who would believe the Roman slanders of our dear brethren, the primitive christians I 

But it so happens that we have ihs most ample testimony to refute the slander 
perpetrated at Rome against the Waldenses, and unblushingly perpetuated by every 
Romish priest, even in this enhghtened age ! 

These primitive christians believe J in the one living and true God, and the Trinity ; 
they were not Manicheans : they held not the doctrine of an evil god, equal to a good 
one : they received all the books of the Old and New Testament ; and rejected the 
Apocrypha ; they held marriage to be lawful in minister and layman ; they were 
firm believers in all the doctrines of the gospel, as exhibited in our creeds and canons; 
they were a chaste and devout christian people. 

I refer you to Jones' Church History, re-published in New York, in 1824. In vol. 
ii. p. 41, &-C., you will find a copy of two of the ancient Waldensian Confessions of 
Faith, and a full exhibition of their character and history. I beg to refer jou also to 
Gilly's " Waldensian Researches, with an introductory inquiry into the antiquity and 
purity of the Waldensian church,'''' published in London, 1831. 

Dr. Allix who has investigated this subject deeply and accurately, says, — " I defy 
the impudence of the devil himself to find in the writings of the Waldenses the least 
shad(\w of Manicheism !" And every scholar now admits that the erroneous state- 
ments of Mosheim and Limborch have originated in their implicitly following the 
Romish inquisitors on this subject. As for Robinson, he wreaks his vengeance on 
them because he found them too orthodox to be Socinians ! See Allix's Remarks on 
the Churches of Piedmont, p. 188, 191, and Jones' Ch. Hist. vol. ii. ch. .5. 

And if you prefer the testimony of Roman Catholics, I refer you to Florimond de 
Remund^s Hist, de la Heresie, liv. vii. chap. 7. He calls them the "first Luthe- 
rans" as in all important points, they agree with the Reformers. " They have nothing 
in their mouths but Christ, the Saviour," says he, "and they know nothing else than 
Jesus Christ. It is the ignorance, gross, and almost essential to the Vandois heretics 
revived in this age &c." "Having the Bible translated, these poor people read it 
contiiiually, in such a manner that they know all the books of it by heart." 

Heax also Thuanus, Historia; lib. xxvii. cap. 9. temp. Carrol. IX. "Nee quenquam 
&c. Nor can one usually find even a boy among ihem who being interrogated rela- 
tive to the faith he professes, cannot promptly and from memory, give a reason, &c." 
And he quotes VViclifF, Huss, and Jerome, as being precisely of their opinions. See 
the London Prot. Journal, for 1831, p. 718. 

But what is more, we have the testimony of two inquisitors. The one was Reinerius., 
who published a catalogue of the Waldensian errors. Dr. Allix has given us the Latin 
copy of this, p. 188, &c. The other inquisitor's ■ testimony you will find in Hist. 
Scrip. Bohem. p. 222; and in Allix, p. 211. Sesselius, your archibishop of Turin, 
lived in the very heart of Piedmont, and was a violent persecutor of these christians. 
He wrote a narrative of their opinions sometime before the Reformation. 

All these show the existence, in an ancient flourishing church, of the very sentiments 
and doctrines of Luther, and of Calvin. In reading Sesselius' extract from the Wal- 
densian confessions, you would imagine him quoting from the pages of Calvin! But 
Calvin's name was not then even heard of. And yet the Roman Catholics ask us, 
" where was your religion before Luther ?'' See Jones ii. p. 35 — 4 1 . But what crowns 
the whole, we have the testimony of one of your ' iiifallibies;' i mean yEucas Silvius 



28 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

afterwards pope Pius ii. It is found in his Historia Bohemia, p. 141. And if this is 
not in your reach, you will findcoj)ious extracts in Jones' Church Hist. ii. p. 19 — 41. 
From the statements of their bitterest foes, therefore, as well as their friends, it is a matter 
of historical record, that the agreement between these primitive apostolical christians, 
and the Reformers, on the various doctrines of the gospel, was strictly uniform and 
exact ! 

I shall for the present, leave this, and when we come to the sanguinary marks of 
the Roman Catholic church, under the article Persecution, we shall rehearse a tale of 
woe, not equalled in history, perhaps ; nor surpassed in fiction ! I allude to the horrid 
massacre, and extermination of the Waldenses, by Pope Innocent VIII. and his fero- 
cious priesthood ! 

The Jews of old bewailed the deeds of their ancestors, and said, "Had we lived in 
the days of our fathers, we would not have slain the prophets." And they garnished 
the sepulchres of the martyred holy ones ! But, alas ! in this enlightened age, the less 
humane priests of Rome do not only refuse to garnish the tombs of the martyred 
Waldenses and Albigenses ; but the}^ breathe the poisoned breath of cruel slander 
over their sacred ashes ! In the vindictive attributes they have been always immu- 
table. 

I am, gentlemen, yours, &c. 

W. C. B. 

EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER III. 

* There is another class of distinctionists, the class of operative religionists. Many of its 
members, leagued to a more than common share of the cuise entailed on the children of 
Adam, toiling in the ' sweat of their brow,' and pack horses to the interior spirit, have 
drudged through the 'Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost.' " 

"Our ambition is limited to one — to Doctor Brownlee, a Preacher in the Middle Dutch 
Church. His name in itself a host, is more than ample matter to impait the lustre of embel- 
lishment to our remarks. His letters, and, oh, ye members of the Middle Dutch Church, 
his powers of ratiocination ! Theological in his matter, logical in his proof, invincible in his 
arguments, rigid in his references, definite in his terms, classical in his phrases, solid in his 
scripture texts, happy in his quotations, — did the old Stagirite return to earth he would shim 
an encounter! — Gentle in his words, courteous in his allusions, fastidious in his compliments." 

"Your first letters are merely illustrative of your powers of ^ squinting ;'' — the last is 
direct, unerring vision; — the completion of cool, logical, and theological argument. To aid 
our readers, and specially the members of the Middle Dutch Church, in the application of 
this direct and unerring vision, the demands expressed in our former letters, are a third 
time r' p ^ated. You, Rev. Sir, have not yet answered them. Excuse the iteration. Pardon 
our ad. er^nce to singleness of object, "Tell us how you know the Bible to be the word of 
God ? How do you know which books were written by Divine inspiration ? Does the 
Bible contain the whole word of God, or does it not?" 

" Were it not reducing you to the innocent simplicity of infancy, Ave should consign you 
to the nursery to be rocked to the old lullab3% "see saw, Magery Daw." Is it thus a 
man acquainted with the 'Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost* establishes his rule of 
faith! Is this the outpouring of the Holy Spirit's favorite !" 

" Your reasons. Rev. Sir, for this inquisitorial decree? Is it because the interior spirit 
does not speak through your letters? Are the * Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost,' 
less gifted with infallibility than your writings?" 

" Here there is a promise urbanely expressed to the ear, but, oh how broken to the hope ? 
The Bible is not yet proved to be the word of God, and yet, in the same letter from which 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 29 

the preceding passage is taken, you invoke the interior spirit to the interpretation of five 
scripture texts to prove the infallibility of the Bible. This is a ludicrous specimen of the 
nursery see saw logic," &c. 

" The interior spirit, is tasked to prove the infallibility of the Bible, and the Bible is used 
to prove the right of the interior spirit. You insist on the Bible being the only rule of faith ; 
that each individual, no matter how gross or uncultivated in mind, possesses the right to 
adopt that sense of scripture which appears to him the best according with truth ; that God 
has promised the illumination necessary to discover this accordance with truth, and, yet, 
all this you pretend to prove from scripture texts, ere the scripture is proved to be the word 
of God!" 

" As the import of this modest and inspired extract, though not in the ' Hebrew and Greek 
of the Holy Ghost,' may be interesting to the members of the Middle Dutch Church, we 
present it to them in English. 'This is my will, this is my command. Let my will be 
reason.' So Luther commands, and he proclaims himself a doctor pre-eminent above all 
the doctors of the entire papacy. Therefore the word alone shall remain in my New 
Testament ***** though all the popish asses should run rabid, they shall not 
remove it." 

'' Bishop Hare says, ' The orthodox faith does not depend upon the scriptures, considered 
absolutely in themselves, but as explained by Catholic tradition.'" 

Note. — This episcopal prelate does not say Roman Catholic tradition. 

''The famous Dudith in his epistle to Beza, says, 'If that be the truth, which the ancient 
Fathers have, with one accord professed, it must be owned, that this truth, will be wholly 
on the papists side.' — See Brerely's Protestant Apology. Now, Rev. Sir, the most learned 
Protestants acknowledge, that we have the holy scriptures on the authority of the Catholic 
church, nay, on the authority of the Roman Catholic church, for Dudith says, that all the ancient 
Fathers, are on 'the side of the papists;' and your favorite Middleton says, ' that he pities 
the Protestants when he sees them struggling to reconcile the Fathers to the reformation.' " 

Note. — Every one who knows the corruptions introduced into the Fathers, by the monks 
of the dark ages; whev eh j modern popery is awkwax-dly tagged to the primitive writers, will 
cordially unite with Dudith and Middleton. 

The above quoted Brcrcly, together with Kiiot and others, were notorious for their mis- 
representations ; and hence they were prime auxiliaries of Milner in his " End of Contro- 
versy." We go on with extracts : — 

" Where then is your infallibility ? " It is seated, says Holy Mother, in all my Bishops and 
Pastors throughout the whole world, professing the same doctrine, and united in faith and 
communion with their supreme pastor, the bishop of Rome. It also resides in a general 
council, at which the pope is present , either in person or by his legates, after it is confirmed 
by the pope himself This is an article of faith wherein all Catholics agree. See Suarcs 
de fide p. 5. sec. 7. No. 9. You now know where to find my infallibility, and on this subject 
you will discover no difference of opinion among my children." 

" The 3rd council of Carthage, held in the year 397, examined the tradition of the church, 
with regard to those books about which there was any doubt, or difference of opinion, and 
found all the books recommended in our canon. In the 47th canon, the council defines our 
books to be canonical, saying, ' we received from our fathers, that these books arc to be read 
in the Church.' " 

To the above (piotation, I shall subjoin the idea of our priests, as Milner, their champioO) 
expresses it. 

"It was not until the end of the fourth century that the genuine canon of scripture was 
fixed: and then it was fixed by tiie tradition and anthority ofthcchimh, decIariHl in ihe third 
council of Carthage, and decretal of P»)|»e Innocent I." He then quotes "the most learned 
protcstunts," — as Luther, Hooker, Chillingworth 



4 * 



EOKA9 CATHOLIC COVTHOrtMST. 



LETTER TV 



TO DOCTOftS POWta, TAmELA, AK1> MB. tETiys. 

Every word o£ God is pure/' — ^ Add Aam not «Mo his wovds, kst he reprove tnee. and 
tkou be louod a Lmmm f" 



Ret. GE^STiXM^y : — ^I sbaH not ftdknr lb. Lerins orer the field of bis poUmiiif 
effusions. The above extracts are a specimeo of yoor last letter : they cany (Akit 
answer aikmg with them. It is tmer I do write Ibr <^ the members of the IGddie 
Dutch Chmcfa." And *^ the members of the Middle Dutch Chnrch,'* are rery dif- 
ferent people fiom the flocks of St. Patrick's paaor! One natnrally adapts himself 
to die dimate and society in whidi he lives! 

I have already stated the ride of £uth held by die church of Christ, resting, as it 
does, on the aocs: • t ztze-xitt: and that held bj your church, ptofeasing to be 
hoilt on SU Ptter. 

It must be obvic b^ stnffi^ Romi^ aidhoTSy that no Ronoan 

Iciest will have can _ . . . r orrr definitifflns, as we give them. The Pro- 

testant torches never have : "lie of faidi is f&e scri/>finn». asreethtdby 

tway one, hy frhaS'. - ' - T_ - s a ^leer interpolatiaQ by the piiesta, who 

defend dieircaiBe : -. Thx H01.T Spimt sfeaki^^c r^TO trs is thk 

miTLE a:sj> jn>GE : 7^ i interprets it to ns, in his plain, sim- 

ple, and pers-!-*:: r'rtt of "prmiie jwdgwttmt,^ and 

^ liberty oTo: z ' does not constkote the Rule. 

Hereby, as n 1 >q c^ tbe means and Acuities 

of studying an 

It is (Mie 01 La this diacns- 

sifCMi, diat our >^ rain word?, 

cortem with I 






.^adgment," in 
ciate the " rigl 
conceived the 

It was : 
I had c" 
ootintiiT 
aon, to ' 
New Yc . 

rule alon^ . c^ ^ _. 
tionof the eeriptnrt- 

There are fir» r^ 
aware, as we >h?_ 
their "infalK: 

tcm, *' tkt ims 
the OMtkoriiif v . ^\. 
Letter H-jthos: ^Wer^ 
cridence of inspirs ' 
flees no sDch eridc^ 



zmg tneir 
. .-.. C7i the divine inapira^ 

" -rst is, that they are 

-? TFrfallibilil^, and 

nod, die main 

aer whole ^"s- 

iiies onijf on am ezttrmai amtkeritg^ amd that it 

'■''-.'^ My opptMieins express ibis in dieir 

Jz. Power. Sir, I cannot see any intrmal 

rr woold say, that he binEelf 

jld not beheTe die suipluieb 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTftOVERSr. 31 

unless led to their belief by the Catholic church; that if the deist would follow him 
into the Catholic church, he would show him the evidence of the inspiration of the 
scriptures." Hence it is a very prominent tenet in their inrtdel system that the 
divine inspiration of the Bible cannot be proved but by the word and authority of 
"Holy Mother!" You may advance all that has ever been written on it, yet if 
you do not yield up the question in debate, and fall down and acknowledge the Roman 
goddess, as above "all that is called God, or is worshipped," they raise the oxitcry, 
that you have not touched the point. "Yield me all I want," cries the Priest, — "or, 
you shun the whole question, and know nothing about logic, or theology." And, 
moreover, when we have such anthropoi alogoi, " unreasonable men," as Mr. Levins 
to deal with, whose Inishowen inspirations render him unfit to take up a solid argu- 
ment, one gets heartily " blackguarded," to the bargain ! 

Now, we have discussed the proofs of the inspiration of the Bible, and shown that 
it is established perfectly by its own internal evidence, and by external proofs, such as 
miracles, tongues, prophecies ; and by historical evidence, and tradition also ; as that of 
the Hebrews and Jews "to whom were committed the oracles of God ;" and by the 
church at Jerusalem; and by the church at Antioch ; by the whole Greek churches; 
by the apostolical church of the Waldenses, and by the church of Rome. All these 
were checks, mutually, on each other ; and all handed down the holy scriptures to pre- 
sent times. 

There never was exhibited such another master-piece of ghostly assurance and 
impudence, as that of the Romish church, in pouring contempt on the churches of 
the East, — say of Antioch, and all the Greek church, far more ancient than herself, 
and far purer; and also on all other branches of the church: and of claiming the 
exclusive honor of handing down the Bible by tradition. 

The Romish rule of faith we also stated ; it is this, — " the infallible scriptures, 
with the apocryphal books, and oral traditions, with the unanimous consent of the 
Greek and Latin fathers ; and all as explained by the infallible head, the Pope or a 
council, or the church, a pope and council. "The Bible," or "infallible rule" 
of the Romish church, in a word, is large enough to load four carts heavily ; besides 
all their traditions. And then the "pope," or "council," or " church," is mounted 
on them as the "infallible judge and interpreter." 

We are now prepared to go on with our dissection of this rule. The whole 
Roman system, as it is evident from history, scripture, and dear bought experience, is 
a cunningly devised scheme to gain, not the salvation of souls : she who is " drunk 
with the blood of the saints," has no anxiety about the salvation of souls; but to gain 
unbounded civil power, and wealth for Peter's purse. And as a preparatory step to 
this, she seeks to gain a complete ghostly power over the souls and consciences of her 
crushed and trodden down victims. Hence we are taught where to seek for the 
originating cause of her adopting not God's holy word, but this rule as the '^infallible 
rule.^'' The question, whh its devisers and inventors, was not, what has God spoken ? 
What is nis word? But it was this : — what is best adapted to achieve promjuly the 
consummation of our scheme of spiritual subjugation: — and, thence, the temporal 
power over the souls, and bodies, and jiossessions of all men ! 

Chillins WORTH furnished us, in our last letter, with tlie true origin of this Romish 
rule. This writer is, on our side of the Romish controversy, what Homer was among 
)lio anci(!nt poets; and Demosthenes was among the orators. And yet my Inis- 
howen fricmd, Mr. Levins gravely quotes this Protestant Hercules as actually favor- 
ing your heresy ! 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



An asylum for the cure and prevention of polemical phrenzy, and literary knavery, 
has, I believe, not yet been contemplated. But no man will hesitate to say that 
such an institution would be infinitely more merciful, and useful, than all your mo- 
nasteries and nunneries ! 

According to Chillingworth, this is the precise attitude of the pope, and the Roman 
Catholic church, before the world. That thing, be it pope, or council, or pope and 
council, or "Mother Church," in which infallibility is lodged, does in a condescending 
manner, take the Holt One and his blessed word, under its special protection : 
bestows on the Bible its inspiration, and all its authority : claims the uncontrolled right 
of explaining it to all men's consciences: and of adding new doctrines, and even new 
sacraments; it appoints its own devoted priesthood, as "the other god upon earth," 
asMassus, bishop of Bitonto said : it doles out a portion of the infallible interior spirit 
to each priest, for the defence of the scarlet woman of St. John : and brings every thing 
into market, for money, even souls, and bodies of men ; and each sin, at the staple 
price of the Pope's exchequer book. It avails itself of the aid of the Bible, when it 
can be gracefully bent to its way : and when it condemns its course, oris silent, it puts 
it on the papal rack, and tortures it into an utterance of what it wants before an ignorant 
and degraded generation of men ! 

We have finished our first two arguments against the Roman Catholic rule. We 
showed first, that, with all their pretentions, their best and most intelhgent writers 
cannot tell us where it is to be foimd. They all admit that " they do have it;" but 
they cannot tell us how to c oms at it 1 

I cannot resist an appropriate illustration of this in a late anecdote. Patrick O'B. 
was attached to one of our packets. It happened that while Patrick was, in his vocation, 
washing a copper kettle, it rolled over board into the sea. It was gone in a moment. 
There was no use in lamenting; he could not recall it. He made his way directly to 
the cabin: — " Captain, can a thing be said to be lost when we know where it is ?" 
"Certainly not, my good lad!" replied the Captain, "Well, then, by St. Patrick!" 
cried our cook, — "my fine copper kettle cannot be said to be lost, at all: for I know 
that it is in the bottom of the sea." " Holy Mother's" infallible judge is precisely in the 
same predicament ! But who shall bring it up and make it ^'isible and tangible ! Our 
seco7id argument was this : — No mortal man, pope or council can wield this same rule, 
or make any practicable use of it. W^e shall now go on : — 

III. Your infallible rule can *ever be found out, on your principles, nor employed for the 
benefit of num. This rule must have been established by Christ for the benefit of all 
God's moral subjects ; or only for the benefit of the pope and his clergy. You will 
scarcely deny that God designed his message to be addressed to all men." Christ saj's, 
— " What I say to you, I say to all, watch.''' " He that hath an ear let him hear what 
the Spirit saith unto the churches." " Search ye the Scriptures, &c. "Blessed is he 
thatreadeth, and they that hear, &c. — You will hardly venture publicly to aflftrm in 
this enlightened country, that God has committed his Holy word only to priests : and 
that the most immoral and polluted priesthood on earth can be the sole depository of 
God's pure scriptures ! I beg yom pardon. I am too charitable : you have openly 
avowed this. But I must remind you that the assertion of a criminal who has abstracted, 
and wasted his master's goods, is not a witness in his own case : his proofless word 
passes for nothing. Give us proof, instead of your assertions. 

Now, how must those who are to receive benefit from your rule, arrive at the evidence 
of the fact that your rule is the only infallible one? On the principles you hold, no 
one can find it out. You condemn, and in genuine Romish spirit, you even ridicule 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTllOVERSt^. 33 

the rights oi" private judgment, and private interpretation, in this matter. Now apply 
your own argument here, and you will see whither it leads you. 

You affirm that the Holy Bible is the infallible rule, so far as it goes : then you add 
the Apocrypha; and a chaotic mass of traditions : and all these are to be taken according 
to the unanimous consent of the Fathers; of whom any two are scarcely of one mind- 
How go you to work here ? You set out to seek this rule and judge, either as a church, 
en masse : which is utterly impossible. Or you go as individuals : but how can you as 
individuals, be assured of the inspiration of the Bible; of the genuine traditions; and 
of the consent o'the Fathers? You must either form a judgment and belief, or not. If 
not, then there is no faith. If you do form a belief and a judgment, then mark your 
dilemma, you do by private judgment, and by private interpretation, determine, yourself, 
that this is the rule and judge. And thus you do, as fallible men, by private judgment, 
determine the infallible rule. That is to say, private judgment, and fallible individu- 
als do that which you have declared they never can do. And, hence, in determining 
your rule, you overthrow all your own objections against ours. 

But even admiting that you have, by private and fallible judgment, determined the 
infallible rule, you will find yourselves no nearer the end of your difficulties than 
before. 

Your " infallible head," the pope, happens to be a mortal and erring man. Besides 
he is not accessible, except to only a few in Italy. He cannot exhibit truth, and decide 
controversies in every chapel ; in every house, in every heart, in all lands. A council 
can do no better. There has been no council since that of Trent. And the ghost of 
that council cannot walk the earth, and enter into all houses, and chapels, and hearts, 
in all lands ! — It could not do this, were it even now in session at Trent. 

" Holy Mother Church," can act no better part. You send your people to her for 
the true infallible rule. Now the act of faith is thus expressed in your Douay cate- 
chism ; and the definition is a curious one ; it embraces the sum total of a Papist's 
faith : " Great God, I firmly believe all those sacred truths which the holy Catholic 
church believes and teaches, because thou, who art truth itself, hast revealed them. 
Amen!" I will not stop to remind you that the Mohammedan belief is as simple, 
namely : " There is one God, and Mohammed is his prophets And, throughout all 
Turkey, there is much more unity in Mohamnjcdan belief, tlian in your church. But 
what I urge on your attention, is this — the difficuhy is not removed by this chicanery. 
" Holy church" cannot do any thing better, in this affair, than the pope. For what 
is " holy church?" Roman priests do not even agree in the answer to this question- 
Some say "the church," is the pope and his clergy: some say it is the })rirsthood. 
You and Mr. Hughes seem to include the laity with the priests, and so make it "the 
people and their pastors." 

But here is the difficulty ; how can you congregate all these into one speaking 
rule ? IIow, and where, can the simple faithful find the response of this oracle ? 
No where under the sun. She cannot speak and judge ; the faithful cannot hear her 
voice from all places where the peoi)le and priests are scattered abroad. 

Either then, the faithful flock have no faith, because they have no response from 
this oracle, and no rule ; or else they must believe hy proxy ; and not only so, but 
truly believe that of which they have no knowledge whatever ! And this last is the 
alternative, as every one knows ! And any man can make tlu^ exporitnont to satisfy 
himself, with a true and d(!voted son of the cburcli. Let any one ask a Roman Catho- 
lic who follows implicitly his priest,—" Pray, what is? your belief f" he will reply, 



34 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

"I believe as the church beheves." "Well, what does the church believe?" He 
will say, " hoJy church believes as I believe." " But what do you and the church 
believe/" " Why, arroh, now we both believe exactly the same thing!" This is 
the uniform answer; and you can never get any other out of thtm, for ihe best reason 
in the world ; there is nothing else in them ! And what is much worse, by the 
RULE, and the priest's influence, nothing else is allowed to enter into his dark and 
wofully abused mind. " Ignorance is the mother of devotion T' This is their old and 
tried maxim. 

Finally, shall the flock be sent to what your champion. Dr. Milner, calls " the whole 
word of God, ivrittcn and %inwritttn?'^ This, as I have said, is large enough to load 
some four carts! Having found these 135 folio volumes, and the unwritten traditions, 
if he can, the simple enquirer is no nearer the end of his difficulties. For, alas ! 
should a layman, in his simplicity, dare to take it on him to use his private judgment, 
and reason, and make a mental eflbrt to find out his Maker's will, and the holy word 
speaking to him, he should forthwith have the ban of the priest pronounced on him. 
He must yield up his conscience and his soul, simply to be guided by the pope or 
council ; that is to say, a rule and a judge which he can never see, and never discover ! 

IV. That Christ established your infallible rule, in his church, we utterly deny. 

The Roman Catholic writers have here exhibited a curious specimen of logic, in 
their abortive eflforts to prove that Christ established their Rule. Milner, in his End 
of Controversy, has led the way ; all of you follow after him. You assert, in strong 
terms, that Christ did establish your rule, and gave it to the apostles : that you are 
the only apostolical successors ; and, therefore, you only have that rule of Christ, 
that is infallible. 

Now, let us see a specimen of the logic and proof. Christ, you say, established 
3'our rule. This was the first thing to be proved ; and, let us not loose sight of the 
materials of this rule. If Christ ordained your rule, then he gave forth by inspi- 
ration, the Apocrypha, as well as the Bible ; then, also, he ordained by inspiration, 
all the oral traditions of your church ; and he also told the church, by the Holy 
Spirit, that he gave you the unanimous consent of the endlessly coLtradicting Fathers, 
as a part of that rule, and that he appointed, by name and title, the pope, or coun- 
cil, or the church, you know not which, as the only infalhble judge. 

This was the point to be proved : but no one of you touches it except by asser- 
tion. Milner, and Hughes, and yourselves, shift completely the subject to be proved. 
And, instead of showing that Christ ordained the materials out of which your rule 
is made, you labor to show tliat Christ ordained teaching by word of mouth. 
" Christ," says Hughes, " has made the promise of infallibility to the succession of 
TEACHING and not to writing, reading, or private interpretation." And Milner, in 
his End of Controversy, declares that Christ sent the apostles and their successors to 
preach the gospel by word of mouth. "If," says he, " Christ had intended that all 
men should learn his religion from a book, viz : — the New Testament, he would 
have written that book himself, and enjoined the obligation of learning to read it, 
&c." " But," adds this Vicar General of England, with unblushing impiety and 
infidelity, " Christ wrote no part of the New Testament himself and gave no orders 
to his apostles to lorite it.''^ See Letter VI., &c., p. 6-3, &c. 

Thus, having, on the principles of deism, got rid of the written word of God, 
although in contradiction to the council of Trent, which admitted the inspriration of 
the holy scriptures, you do, by a dexterous shifting of the question, make this teach-^ 



EOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 35 

Ing by word of mouth, to be the rule established by Christ in his church ; and, 
being established by him, it must be infallible. 

And thus, the real infallible rule of Rome is abandoned, without proof, to its fate. 
Instead of proving the inspiration of the Apocrypha, traditions, and the consent of the 
Fathers, and the divine authority of the pope, they very gravely set to work, and try 
to prove that the " infallibility was promised to teaching by word of mouth !" 

But were it possible that you, gentlemen, could prove the infallibility of the succes- 
sors of the apostles, this would not avail you. For, — 

V. The line of your succession is entirely broken off^ both as it regards the popes and 
the church. 

1. The succession is cut off from Rome, by the loss of the essential bond of holiness. 
Christ says, " Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." "Except a 
man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
"If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." This is the essential 
doctrine of Christianity. Hence no wicked man, no infidel, can be considered a 
member of Christ's church. 

But, without denying that there are individuals who are true christians within the pale 
of the Romish church, we do assert that, as a church, she has not only lost this badge 
of holy disciple hip, but even maintains that holiness of heart, or internal grace, is not 
necessary to membership. Hence the usual expression with the Roman priests : 
"Such a one is reconciled to the church;" not to God, but "to the church.''^ 
And Bellarmine maintains an argument that " wicked men, infidels and reprobates, 
remaining in the public profession of their Romish church, are true members of the 
body of Christ !" See Bell. Lib. 3. De Eccles. c. 7. The Rhemist Annotators 
declare the same, on 1 Tim. iii. 15, and on John xv. 1. 

2. And, in addition to this, the Romish church has apostatized from the funda- 
mental doctrines of the gospel. You reject the one only and perfect atonement of Christ, 
and substitute, in its place, the mass, in which you profess to offer up weekly, an 
unbloody sacrifice for the living and the dead ; you reject justification by faith alone, 
through Christ's righteousnes ; you deny the efficacious work of grace by the Holy 
Ghost : with you, a sinner is saved purely by human merit, and the efficacy of your 
sacraments, and the priest's intention. 

And to the pure doctrines and institutions of the gospel of Christ, the Roman Catho- 
lics have added an endless train of doctrines, will-worship, rites, and ceremonies. 
The whole face of Christianity has been changed in that church ; the whole system 
new modelled, in the most heaven daring manner. 

In Christ's throne they have reared " their lord god, the pope." They have intro- 
duced the adoration of saints, and the idolatrous veneration of images. They have 
invented a purgatory, though opposed by St. Augustine, and the best Fathers, before 
the sixth century. Tliey deny marriage to the priests, and very facetiously call a 
bachelor priest's life, " chastity !" Transubstantiation and the mass, though iuvoTifcd 
in the ninth century, were imposed on the Roman church, only so late as 1215, in 
the fourth council of the Lateran, by Pope Innocent III. They deny the cup to Uie 
laity in the Lord's supper ; although Pope Gelasius, in 492, pronounced it sacrilege 
to do so ! 

Thus, your church is apostate in doctrine ; and so ihe succession is cut oil. Hear 
the words of Gregory Niizianzin, speaking of Athanasius succcHMling in the chair ot 
St. Mark : " He was not less the successor of his piety, than of his scat; in point of 



35 ROMAN CATSOLIC CONTROVERSTt 

time, distant from him. But, in piety, which indeed is properly called successidn'y 
directly after hiin. For he that holdeth of the same doctrine is of the same chair; 
but he who is an enemy to the doctrine, is an enemy to the chair!" Orat. 21, on 
Athan. Paris edit, of 1777. 

But, 3. Your succcsnon is broken off in the broken Hne of the popes, and true ordina- 
tion. The very nature of the apostolical character, and call to office, will show that 
the apostles had no successors in office. An apostle was one who had seen Christ 
alive, after his death ; was sent by immediate inspiration and a call to office, by 
Christ, visible to him ; and who, moreover, established his divine call before the 
world, by miraculous powers. Gal. chap. i. and 1 Cor. ix. 1, &c. 

Besides these, Christ appointed pastors and teachers. When the line of extraordi- 
nary offices, hke that of the apostles and prophets, ceased, the ordinary line of pastors 
and teachers continued. These alone, strictly speaking, had successors, as these 
were successors to the apostles in that part of their characters which made them 
teachers. " Go ye, and teach all nations." This was spoken as much to the 
pastors and preachers, as to the apostles; and to the successors of that class which 
actually had [successors. 

But even admitting, what was impossible, that your popes were the successors of 
the apostles, the line has been broken off long ago. 

I have before me copious extracts from Platina, Baronius, Genebrard, Dupin, &c., 
all Romish writers, which show that the Roman Catholic church was corrupt from 
the fourth century ; that she increased in corruption until the ninth : and that, from 
the ninth to the council of Trent, say for 660 years, she was in a state of the 
most frightful corruption. 

The tumults and bloodshed, at the election of popes, clearly prove that Rome was 
converted into the synagogue of Satan. Could such gladiators be the apostohcal 
successors ? Pope Liberius [A. D. 35.3] became a heretic by the emperor's influ- 
ence, and that of the apostate Bishop Hosius. Hear your writer, Andre du Chesne : 
*'Notto dwell on all the persons of distinction, who imitated him, he notoriously car- 
ried along with him, in his fall, the supreme bishop of the entire orthodox church !" 

Platina, in his life of Damasus, I., A. D., 366, says, "that when he was elected 
pope, he had a rival in the church called Sicinus ; where many were killed on both 
sides, in the church itself: since, the matter was discussed not only by votes, hut 
by force of arms .'" 

Baronius, vol. vi- p. 562, A. D. 498, tells us that the emperor's faction sustained 
the election of Laurentius to the papacy. In this struggle, " murders, robberies, 
and numberless evils, were perpetrated at Rome." Nay, such were the horrible 
scenes that, says Baronius, "there was a risk of their destroying the whole city!" 

In the schism between the Popes Sylverius and Vigilius, in the sixth century, 
the latter, though an atrociously wicked man, " implicated," says Baronius, " in so 
many crimes," that all virtuous men opposed him, was raised to the papal chair. 
Yet this man was pronounced a good pope. Baronius says he is not to be despised 
though a bad man. " Let every man recollect," says he, " that even to the shadow 
of Peter, imanense virtue was given of God !" Bar. vol. vii. p. 420, 

In the midst of contentions which rent the Roman Catholic church. Pope Pela- 
gius I. was chosen. This pope approved the council which Pope Vigilius had con- 
demned. This increased the flames of ecclesiastical war to such a degree that the 
pope «ould not find s. bishop of Rome, who could consecrate him ; and he was 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. ^ 

constrained to beg a priest of Ostium to do this service: "a thing" says Baroninft, 
** v/hich never had occurred before." Vol. vii. p. 475. 

The Popes Formosus and Stephen Uved in the ninth century. The latter, say« 
Bardnius, was so wicked, that he would not have dared to enrol him in the list of 
popes, were it not that antiquity gives his name. In the exercise of papal infallibility, 
he not only rescinded the acts and decrees of his infallible predecessor Formosus ; 
but, collecting a council of cardinals and bishops as bad as himself, he actually had 
the old pope taken out of his grave ; and he brought him into court, tried, and 
condemned him ; cut off three of his fingers ; and plunged his remains into the 
Tiber. See Platina's life of Stephen VI. and Baronius, do. 

Pope Romanus I., in his turn, abrogated the decrees and acts of Stephen VI. 
"For," says Platina, "these popes seem to have thought of nothing else, than to 
extinguish the name and dignity of their predecessors." Life of Romanus I. 

Genebrard in his Chronicles, under the year 904, says, "for nearly 150 years, 
about fifty popes deserted wholly the virtue of their predecessors, being apostate 
rather than apostolical I" 

Baronius, under the year 1004, names three rival popes, who perpetrated the most 
shameful crimes, and bartered the papacy, and sold it for gold. He, though a Roman 
catholic writer, calls them Cerberus, " the three headed beast which had issued from 
the gates of hell!" 

Bzovius, in his Eccles. Annals, A. D., 1411, dclares that after the council of Pisa, 
the head of the church was three schisms, three anti-popes. 

The council of Pisa deposed two of your holy popes, whom, in their sentence, they 
pronounced notorious heretics, and guilty of perjury. 

The council of Constance, in A. D., 1414, deposed three popes, namely, Benedict 
XIII., the Spanish pope ; and Gregory XII., the French pope ; and John XXIII., 
the Italian pope. 

In short, so early as A. D. 1073, there had been no less than twenty-five schisms, 
by the anti-popes, and the general profligacy of the priests. And the most violent 
ones happened after that date. 

Now the present pope, and his prelates, and all his priests, are as incapable of tra- 
cing their succession through these endlessly broken lines of papal succession, as are the 
present Jews of tracing their descent from their respective tribes and families. It is 
all idle and absurd in them to set up the claims of apostolical succession. Jerome 
and Gregory Nazianzen tell you that the succession is that of piety and doctrine^ 
not that of merely sitting in the same chair, or throne ! On j^our principle, the 
Turks, or Egyptians' power and dominion in Jerusalem, worshipping in the mosque 
of Omar, are the true and lineal successors of Moses and Aaron, and the Hebrew 
church of old ! 

Here I shall add an appropriate remark of your Baronius ; who though a Roman 
catholic writer, seems to labour honestly to make out the case that your church is dege- 
nerated from the once holy church of Rome, as far as the Turks' mosque at Jerusalem, 
is from the pure ancient Hebrew church. Hear his words in his life of Pope Stephen 
VII. A. D. 900. "The case is such, that scarcely any one can believe, or even will 
believe it, unless he sees it with his eyes, and handles it with his hands, vi/. What 
unworthy, vile, unsightly, yea, execrable and hateful things the sacred apostolic See, 
on whose hinges the universal apostolical church turns, has been compelled to see, 
&c." — " To our shame and grief be it spoken, how many monsters, horrible to behold, 



3S ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

were intruded by them" (the secular princes,) "into that seat which is reverenced by' 
angels I" " The holy See," he adds, " is bespattered \\dth filth," " infected by stench," 
•• defiled by impurities," and "blackened by perpetual infamy !" 

And to crown this climax, Baronius, under the year 912 adds : "What is then the 
face of the holy Roman church ! How exceedingly foul it is .' WTien most potent, sordid 
and abandoned women (Meretrices,) ruled at Rome ; at whose will the Sees were 
changed ; bishops were presented ; and what is horrid to hear, and unutterable, False 
Pontiffs, the paramours of these women, were intruded into the chair of St. Peter, 
iScc." He adds — " For who can affirm that men illegally intruded by bad women, 
(Scortis,) were Roman pontitfs I" Again: "The canons were closed in silence ; the 
decrees of Pontiffs were suppressed ; the ancient traditions were proscribed ; and the 
sacred ceremonies and usages of former days were wholly extinct I" See his 
Annals A. D. 912. 

Thus we have evidence the most complete and oven^'helming, not from Protestant 
authors, but from your o-^^-n favourite Baronius, that the Roman catholic succession 
is, in every sense, completely and for ever cut off. You are a ^\'ithered branch lying 
in the dust. You are £i5 completely severed from the primitive apostohcal church of 
Rome, as is the mosque of St. Omar, from the primitive christian church of Jerusalem. 
Hence, you have neither pope, nor prelate, nor priest, nor sacrament, nor a holy 
infallible rule of faith I 

I shall close this letter with a brief notice of some of the miscellaneous objections in 
your last. You commit an error relative to the canon and the council of Carthage. 
The editions of that council's decrees var\' much ; and they are of " very doubtful 
faith." Vvliat confidence can you have in their decrees, when tliere is mention made 
in it of your pope Boniface, who was actually not made pope until 23 years after its 
meeting ! And if you admit their canon, what will you do with their decree about the 
ecclesiastical canon of Legends. And, finalh% are you aware that this council con- 
demns the papal ambition ; denying that any ecclesiastic should be called " bishop of 
the first seat,'' or '''prince of priests,'' or even '' chief of bishops!" See Bern De 
jMoore, Per. Comment, vol. i. p. 316. 

The apocryphal books are not in the canon \\Titten out by 3Ielito, bishop of Sardis, 
of the second century- ; nor in that of Origen of the third; nor in that of Athanasius, 
Hilar}", Gregory Naz., or of Jerome, of the fourth. See Euseb. L. 4. 26. and L. 6. 
2.5: LardnerlV. 2S2. Home, Introd. i. p. 628. 

Hear now St. Jerome in his Epist. ad Laetam, — " Caveat Sec. Let her take heed of all 
the apocr^'pha ; if she will read it, not for the truth of doctrine, but reverence of the story, 
let her know that they are not their v.-ritings whose titles they bear, and that many cor- 
rupt things are mixed in them." See Willet, p. 2. folio. 

Our priests must perceive that the words they quote from the council of Canhage 
do not canonize the apocr^'pha. They only state that these books ''were read in the 
church.'^ Augustine also admits that they were read, "but by an humble officer, in a 
lower place than that in ichich the canonical scriptures were read by the bishop." See 
Aug. De Predest., Lib. 1. cap. 14. And in his De Civ. Dei, Lib. 18. c. 26. and Lib. 17. 
c. 29, he declares that Judith, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus are not canonical. There- 
fore, gentlemen, you and Milner, — if we must credit historj' and the Fathers, have 
uttered what is notoriously in error, relative to the canon, and tradition ! 

You quoted Hooker, and Chillingw-orth, as favoring your infidehty on the rule of 
faith I I shall give you a quotation from the first, with the comment of the last on it. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 39 

Hooker thus writes,—" Scripture teaches us that saving truth, which God discovered 
to the world by revelation : and it presumeth us taught otherwise, that itself is divine. 
The question then being, by what means we are taught this ; some answer, that to 
learn it, we have no other way than tradition. Chillingworth says — " some answer 
so, but he doth not. " These great men, next proceed to show that mere tradition ' is 
not enough :' and that 'the authority or testimony of the church (they mean not the 
Romish church) is the first outward motive leading men to esteem of the scrip- 
tures.' C. adds, — the first outward motive, not the last assurance whereon we rest." 
Hooker Ecc. Pol. B. 3. s. 8. Chill, note 7. Prot. Jour, of London, vol. i. 686. 

Yours very truly, and respectfully. 
W. C. B. 



EXTRACT FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER IV. 

" Spurciloquium decet hereticos et ethnicos!" — Tertul. De Resur. 

" Is your last letter worthy of a scholar, worthy of him who is intimate with the interior 
spirit, and familiar with the " Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost?" Is it, in any sense, 
a logical and theological production? Does it, even remotely, bear on the matter in ques- 
tion — your rule of faith ?" 

" Does it honor him who erects his rule of faith on the whisperings of the interior Spirit, 
and through its illumination selects from the " Hebrew and Greek of the holy Ghost," those 
necessary articles of creed on which his salvation depends ?" 

" Unable to meet your antagonist in manly and logical argument — skulking under tlie 
shelter of subterfuge and rank slanders, into which you breathe a still ranker life, — a prey 
to the gnawings which eat into your very heart's core under defeat, disgrace and dishonor, 
you sputter out the morbid secretions of an envenomed will." 

Again our queries are repeated. 

How do you knovv^ the Bible to be the word of God ? 

How do you know which books were written by divine inspiration ? 

Does the Bible contain the whole of the word of God, or does it not? 

"Nothing in your last — but an idle drivel about the 'liberty of conscience,' — American 
Republicans, a startling phrase, anthropoi alogoi, to prove intimacy with Hebrew and 
Greek of the Holy Ghost &,c. &c." 

" Thus you go up, up, up; 

And thus you go down, down, downy ; 
Thus you go backward and forward, — 

And, heigh for your logic, dear Brownlee !" 

" Your register of, and tirade about, the Popes is out of place., of no consequence to the 
real matter under consideration — your rule of faith." 

" We call on you, in the face of the Biblical world, to produce one single text of scrip- 
ture, which tells you ' that the only rule of faith and judge of controversy, cstablislicd by 
Christ, is the Holy Spirit speaking to us in the wriUcn word of the Old Testament and of 
the New." 

" First, when Christ sent hi^ apostles to convert the world, he did not say go and di.-;tributc 
the scriptures to the nations of the earth but ' Go into the whole world, and preach the 
gospel to every creature.' " 

" Secondly. The Bible is a book more or less obscure in most parts of it, and full of things 
'hard to be understood, whicli the unlearned and unstable wrest to their otni dcstrjictian.' 
•2 Pet. iii. 16. Some texts seem to contradict others : Several rt/;/)Crtr to inculcate the very 
vices which God condenuis." 

'' Thirdly. The learned among christians, who make the Bible alone their rule of fi^iih, 



40 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



eannot agree, as to its meaning, in the most important points ; as the endless variationB of 
Protestants on all religious subjects prove." 

" Fourthly. The rule of faith previously to the existence of the scriptures of the Ne^ 
Testament, must have been the testimony of the church or preaching of the gospel by men 
sent by God." 

'' Can you, Rev. Doctor, adduce scripture evidence, that the gospels in the New Tegtak 
ment were acttudly written by the blessed Apostles and Evangelists, Vi^hose names are 
attached to tliem ? Is it possible for you to prove by any other means, than tradition, that 
the Sabbath of the Jews was changed by the Apostles to the first day of the week ? What 
other proof can you give, except that of tradition, for the custom of infant baptism." 

You shall aswer this, — " First, if we look back to the commencement of Christianity, we 
shall find that the New Testament was written, by the Apostles and Evangelists chiefly in 
Greek." 

" We think it strange, that our most gracious Redeemer v/ould require of the poor ignO' 
rant people to pick out their religion through the exercise of tJieir own scanty intellect from 
the holy scripture, or to depend on their own weak capacities, for detecting the true sense 
aiid interpretation of it." 

" Your great mistakes in supposing the rule of faith was made and intended by God tp 
be put into the hands of every man. It would be absurd to suppose it; and, hence, the old 
distinction of Ecclesia docens, and Ecclesia discens, &c." 

" Christ gave no orders to his Apostles to write the New Testament;" If the Bible be your 
anly rule of faith, you cannot believe that Christ did give any such command to his Apos- 
tles. Produce the text if you can, and if you cannot, why believe he did command his Apos- 
tles to write the New Testament?" 

"But we cannot conclude, without expressing our great surprise at the divisions of Pro- 
testants with regard to the very essence of religion, seeing that they are taught, as they assert 
by Christ himself, under 'guidance of the Spirit of God.' " 



LETTER V. 

TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 

" Therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee 
back by the way, by which thou earnest." — Isaiah's message to Sennacherib, ch. 37. 29. 

ON THE RULE OF FAITH. 

Gentlemen : — I dare say my readers will have learned already, from this stago 
of our argument, that it is not by fair and manly argument that Popery seeks to- 
advance itself: but, on the contrary, by throwing a veil over its most repulsive and 
haggard features. Every Protestant, and every patriot ought to make himself tho- 
roughly acquainted with this peculiar attribute of popery, namely its singular power 
of elasticity, in adapting itself to each country ; to all times, and places ; and to the 
peculiar habits of thinking among a people. With the Jesuit among the Chinese, it 
permits the natives to worship deceased fathers and mothers ; on the trifling condition 
that they only change the nomenclature, and call them St. Peter ; St. Paul ; St. 
Dominick ; and the Holy Virgin! Or, with the Canadian Jesuit among the Indians, 
it gains the ear of the savage warrior by "representing Jesus Christ as an ancient, 
2ind brave warrior, who excelled all his compeers in killing and scalping the foes of 
the tribe !" 

Its grossest doctrines it carefu.iy conceals, among civilized and refined people. It 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 41 

is in its government, not only monarchic, but feudal : and of the very essence of 
absolutism, in its claims of authority over the souls, consciences, and bodies of its 
votaries. Witness the absolute supremacy of his hohness, over his prelates ; and 
that of the prelates, over the priests ; and that of the priests over the souls, bodies? 
and properties of the simple faithful ! 

Yet, while, in the very essence of its priestly power, it is all hostility to republican 
freedom ; and cannot be otherwise, from its public, and sworn allegiance to the 
foreign potentate of Rome ; it gravely affects to raise its hosannahs in favor of our 
glorious and free institutions ! I speak not of all : there are in the Romish com- 
munion, as enlightened and loyal hearts as ever beat in a gallant bosom : and many 
of these excellent men we have in our city. I speak of the Romish priesthood : and 
of those who basely yield to their absolutism ; and who sustain their usurpation di" 
what neither God, nor man ever gave them. 

It is a truth which I am anxious to impress on my readers, that there has beep 
no change, no improvement, no reformation, in the spirit, power, and designs of 
popery. Its spirit is precisely the same, this day, in its secret haunts, in our city, and 
over the land, as it is now in Italy and Spain : and it is the same here, and in Italy, 
as it ever has been in the darkest ages of Europe. There is a strange delusion 
abroad in the land, namely ; that there has been a singular improvement in it ; and 
that it is entirely different. To make this impression on the American mind, has 
been the incessant labor of the Jesuits who swarm in disguise, among us, in these 
United States, since they lost their foothold in Europe. And the extent of this 
lethargy and indifference is appalling. It indicates one of two things : the great 
influence of Jesuitism, or the insensibility of our fellow-citizens to the national dan- 
ger to which we are exposed from the Jesuits, whom no despot in Europe can endure, 
and who have been solemnly banished by every government of the old world ! 

Now, Holy Mother and her sons are precisely the same now as wlien they con- 
vulsed the nations of Europe. The old lion has had his claws pared, and his teeth 
broken ; he is only reclining in his den — en Qoucliant — until his teeth and his claws 
shall have grov/n. His spirit is the same, unbroken, unsubdued, untameable ! And 
our fellow citizens, whose characteristic charity has been ungenerously imposed on, do 
verily pay them no compliment, in a Jesuit's estimation, when they call their system 
an improvement on the doctrines, regimen, and tyranny of the papal court, in the 
dark ages. In paying them this compliment, at which every son of Loyola smiles, 
but with bitterness of feeling, we actually, though unwittingly, rob them of their pre- 
eminent attribute of immutability. 

It is a compliment fis ungracious to our Jesuits, as that of the popish princes of the 
old world to their poi)e. They caressed and worshipped the apostolical vicar of 
Christ, while tlicy sent potent armies to beleaguer his city, and plunder him, as a 
temporal prince! 

All the difference which can be supposed to exist between ancient and inodcrK 
popery, arises from this elastic attribute of adapting itself to the times, the habiis, and 
religious freedom of a thinking people. And, hence, our main task is to exhibit iheir 
real and accredited principles, in their standard works, and contrast with them these 
pretended modern views, put on, en masque, until the time (may it never hapi)en,) when 
their anticipated ascendency shall take place in our land, on the contemplated ruin of 
the Protestant religion, and ilie extinction of our re])nblic institutions! 

We have proved, I trust, to the satisfaction of every candid christian, that what the 

6* 



42 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

Roman Catholic church calls its infallible rule of faith never can be found out, or 
reduced to any practical purpose : that Christ never established that rule in his church: 
and that even if he did, the Une of succession is broken off, and lost irretrievably. 
The blow w^hich severed the last bond of apostolical union and succession, was struck 
by that assembly of ungodly men who formed the council of Trent; and whom your 
own father Paul, in his history of it, called "a camp of incarnate demons !" The 
succession is gone from the Romish church, like the departed glory, which, in the 
holy vision of Ezekiel, was seen hovering long over the threshhold, and then over the 
city, and, finally, took its flight! 

No accurate theologian ever said that the holy universal church of Christ has been, 
or can be, cut off. She has existed in her glory and beauty, as the spouse of Chriat, 
since the days of Adam, down through all the revolution of time, and of empires, even 
U) this liour. Unlike the church of Rome, which by her own confession, rests on a 
mortal man, the rock Peter, — the holy church of God is founded on the eternal 
ROCK of ages, even Jesus Christ; and the gates of hell cannot prevail against her. 
She advances in splendor, and an ever encreasing lustre of accumulating glory, as 
she advances in days, and in years. And this fair one moves forward, leaning on 
the arm of her espoused Lord, to take possession of all nations, and kingdoms on 
earth! And the long line of her successive pastors and teachers, has ever continued, 
unbroken, till now, and will through all days, unto the consummation of all things. 

This holy universal church may not, at all times, be visible. In the days of Ahab, 
the spiritual church was not visible : it did not stand visibly out with its pastors and 
teachers. Yet it existed in the ministrations of Elijah ; and in the persons of the 7000 
who, though unknown even to that holy prophet, had not bowed the knee to Baal- 
So also in the general apostacy of the christian era, this spiritual society did not stand 
visibly out before the world with her pure ministers, and her congregated assembUes. 
Yet there ever was a church of God in Asia, in Greece, and amid the dens and caves 
in the west and south of Europe : there ever was an unbroken succession of holy wit- 
nesses : with their unbroken line of holy pastors, and teachers, and they were raised 
rip, as their martyred fathers closed their lives, and sealed the testimony with their 
blood, — by the call of divine providence, and the call of the faithful church; a two- 
fold call, essential to the true ministry ; — which no Roman Catholic priest ever had; 
or ever thought of claiming. 

If protestants would be at the trouble of keeping these facts in view, relative to the 
succession of the pure church of Christ, in Asia ; and through the line of the Walden- 
ses, and the very ancient Anglian church, and the Culdees, and Lollards in Scotland 
and Ireland, every one would be prepared to answer the illiterate and vulgar quibble 
of the Roman catholics, — "Where was your religion before Luther?" Yes! The holy 
church of Jesus Christ, has from the days of Adam, been rolling on like the streams of 
our own mighty Mississippi, and becoming deeper and wider, and more and more 
majestic, as she flows along the bosom of time. But the Roman catholic church, and 
the numerous sects and heresies in her, like so many byous, bursting through the 
banks of that noble river, and threading their heavy and muddy courses through the 
adjacent lands, have been diverging, in the course of years, farther and farther from the 
pure rivers of the water of life, which issue from the sanctuary and throne of God. — But 
we now go on to our — 

VI. Argument, against the Roman catholic rule of faith ; namely : — The proof 



I 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 43 

vAick the Romish writers bring in behalf of your rule, is not only involved in contradi^i- 
Hons, but is founded in arrogant and blasphemous assumptions. 

"Popery," says bishop Hall, (in his works p. 351.) "Popery destroyeth the foun- 
dation, and instead of the true foundation, it lays a double new one ; the one a new 
rule of faith : and the other, a new author, or guide of faith." Instead of Christ, as the 
Judge, " popery rears on the throne a man, the man of sin. He must know all things, 
can err in nothing ; he directs, informs, commands, animates, both in earth, and pur- 
gatory ; expounds scripture, canonizes saints, forgives sins, and creates new articles 
of faith; and in all these, is absolute and infallible as his Maker !" 

Planting themselves on the ground of this rule, the Roman priesthood intrude them- 
eelves between the human intellect, and our Creator ; and declare that they are lords 
over the reason, and judgment, and conscience of man ; that man shall not think for him- 
self, nor exercise, in religion, the rights oi^ private judgment. They stand up between 
God and his own accountable subjects, and affirm in the very presence of the Almighty, 
that they shall not hear God's word, as he speaks it to them : that they shall not be 
permitted " to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches ; that they shall hear it 
only as their priesthood choose to explain it: that all the authority of the Bible is 
derived from them, and their church ; that no man shall take on him to worship God, 
as Christ prescribes, but as the Romish priesthood ipr escribes: that the Spirit of 
God speaking in the Scriptures shall not interpret the word to them ; but that the 
priesthood alone shall do it. And thus, in the very face of the Almighty, the supreme 
and only Judge of all, do they usurp the guidance of the human conscience : and thrust 
themselves in the throne of God, and receive the confessions of sins ! sitting in the temple 
of God, and calling the pope, God, they grant absolution of sins ! They provide a new 
sacrifice of a thing they call the Mass ; and they tell divine justice, that this, even this, 
and not the blood of Christ, shall atone and reconcile ! They consummate their 
damning high treason against the Son of God, by providing a supply of new and 
unheard o^ intercessors ; and they place this new host of their heaven, under the super- 
vision oithe mediatrix, the Virgin Mary ! 

And they close the creation of their new heavens, and their new earth, by denounc- 
ing the holy Bible, as " a falacious rule ;" and erecting in its stead, as their law, and 
their judge, the rule and judge of their own invention ! And they utter their hosannaha 
to them as " infallible'' and as utterly removed above all liability to mistake, or misappre- 
hension ! 

After this, it would not surprise us, if they claim for their pope, or the church, the 
power of appointing new articles of faith. I am aware that a strong party among 
them deny this, but the Roman party does maintain it. Pope Leo X. condemned 
Luther for denying this power : See his Bull added to the last Council in Latcran : 
and bishop Jer. Taylor's works p. 392. And Thomas Aquinas and Almain expressly 
assert, — " That the Popes of Rome by defining many things, whicli before lay hid, 
«ymbolum fidci augere consuesse, are accustomed to enlarge the symbol of faith." 
And every body knows that twelve articles were added to the creed, by the council 
of Trent. 

Bellarmine De concil. Auctor, lib. ii. cap. 17, teaches the genuine popery, namely; 
that "the supreme pontiil" is simply and absolutely above the church ; aiul above a 
general council, &c." He adds the following, which no one can clear from (he 
charge of blasphemy : " All the names which in the scriptures arc applied to Christ, 
proving him to be above the church, are, in like maimer, ap])lied to the pontiff; as. 



44 ROMAN CATHOLIC CO>-TROVKRSY. 

first, Christ is pater familias, head of the family, in his o^^ti house, which is the 
church. The pontiff is high steward in the same, that is, he is pater famihas, in the 
place of Christ, loco Christi." 

And hence the titles of the pope, on the pages of these writers, who advocate this 
doctrine. He is " Deus alter in terra," " another god on earth ;" " the lord our god 
the pope." ''Idem est dominium Dei ac Papae ;" " The dominion of God and the 
pope are the same!" "The infallible one." And pope Clement VII. and his car- 
dinals, in their letter to king Charles VI., say, " as there is only one God m heaven, 
60 there cannot, and there ought not, to be but one God on earth !" — meaning himself. 
See Troisard, torn. 3. p. 147. Mussus, bishop of Bitonto, called the pope, " him 
who is to us as our God;" and the bishop of Grenada styled him, " a god on earth, not 
subiect to a coimcil." And in Bellarmine's noted saying, we have this doctrine, 
(lib. iv. de Rom. pont. c. 5:) "But if the pope should err by enjoining vice, and for- 
bidding virtues, the church, teneretur credere, &c., would be bound to believe ^-ices to 
be good, and virtues to be wicked, unless she would be willing to sin against con- 
science !" Pope Leo X., in his Brief of Nov. 9th, 1512, declared that " as \'icar of 
Christ on earth, he had power to forgive, by virtue of the keys, the guilt and punish- 
ment of actual sins, &c. See Dupin. vol. iv. p. 17. 

These sentiments seem so monstrous, that many of my good natured readers, I 
dare say, actually think that we exaggerate. Hence I shall give a few more quota- 
tions from their approved v-Titers in order to exonerate myself. " Estiment papam," 
&c. They esteem the pope to be God alone ; unicum Deum esse, who has all power 
in heaven and in earth." Gerson and Carron, p. 34; Giannon, Hist. Nap. X. 12. 
St. Bernard, Oper. 1725, says, — "Prater Deum, &c. — None is like unto the pope in 
heaven or earth, except God !,, Pope Innocent III. avowed "that the pope holds the 
place of the true God." — Papa locum Dei tenet in terris. Papa vicem non puri homi- 
nis, sed veri Dei gerens in terra." See Pithou 29; Gibert vol. ii. p. 9. "Papa et 
Christus, &c. — The pope and Christ make one consistory: so that, sin excepted, the 
pope can almost do all things which God can do." See Jacobatius, De Concilio, 
Venet, Edit. 1728, Edgar Var. p. IGl. 

And finally, the pope being invested vcith all pov.^er in heaven, and on earth, all 
ci%'il governments are of right under his dominion. The pope, says a council which 
had Gregory VII. at its head, "ought to wear the token of imperial dignity; all 
princes ought to kiss his feet." Pope Innocent III. said, "the church, my spouse, is 
not married to me \\athout bringing me something." And he goes on to state that 
dowery, namely ; the spiritual and the temporal crown in plenitude ; " that others 
may say of me, next to God, ' out of his fulness have we received !' " Hence, in 
the times of European degradation, he trampled under foot all the laws, and all the 
magistrac}' of the European kingdoms. 

" Qui S^tanam non odit. amet tua dogmata Papa !" 

And as if they attempted, without compunction, the utmost limit of impious daring, 
they claim power to do what Christ himself never did ; namely, " to redeem souls 
out of purgator^^" And those accredited Romanists, who Hcensed that marvellous 
book, the Revelations of St. Bridget, such as Terrecremata, and others, gave sanc- 
tion to that declaration that "the good Gregory-, sua oratione, &c., by his supplica- 
tions raised aloft ' ad altiorem gradum,' to a loftier grade, even the pagan Caesar." 
Morn. Exer. 83. 

Such ai-e the arrogant and blasphemous claims advanced by means of your " infal- 



ftOMAU CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 45 

lible rule." It is impossible not to conclude that this is the invention ofhim " whosd 
timing is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders!" 
VII. The history of your church establishes this position, that it is false, in fact, 
that there is any such thing as an infallible rule in her. If there were infallibility 
in the "Holy Mother," or in the pope, by the "infallible exercise" of their "infal- 
lible rule," then, most assuredly, it would not be too much to expect something like 
sanctity and pure morals, in his holiness, and in his court. We have shown that in 
regard to our rule, all disorders, and divisions in the Protestant churches, arise from 
their not fully listening to, nor entirely obeying, God's holy law and word. But no 
evils, no errors, no divisions, have ever been caused by the Bible. To charge this 
on the holy law, is to charge it on God Almighty speaking in it. But, in your case, 
it is entirely different. We offer to prove that your rule is corrupt; that your head, 
the pope, is corrupt; and that your church is corrupt. And it is the very exercise of 
your infallible rule that does actually cause all these errors and divisions in the 
Romish church! 

Now, let any candid man look at the court and priesthood of Rome, where this 
infallible rule is, in its purest influence and operation. And, gentleman, you know 
as well as I do, what that eminent divine of your church has written, — namely, 
Claude D'Espence ; — " Shameful to relate ! They gave permission to priests to 
keep concubines, upon paying an annual tax !" This is only a tithe of sacerdotal 
impiety. And yet you affect to marvel at my charging them with " immorality 
and pollution." Can it be possible that you do not know what " chastity" means in 
the lips of priests ? But hear the same doctor: " There is a printed book which has 
been sold for a considerable time, entitled the Taxes of the Apostolic Chancery, from 
which we may learn more enormities and crimes, than from all the books of the Sum- 
mists. And of these crimes, there are some which persons may have liberty to commit 
for money ; while absolution from all of them, after they have been committed, may 
be bought." D'Esp. ad, cap. i. Epist. ad. Titum. deg. ii. Hence the pollution of 
your indulgences ; hence the pollution of your auricular confessions, hence your abso- 
lutions for money ! Every one of your victims knows the truth of all this! 

Then, in reference to the character of the pontiff, who wields this "infallible rule ;" 
I quoted out of Baronius, in my last, the character of many of them. To this, you 
replied, — "Your tirade about the popes is out of place, and of no consequence, &c.'* 
Most logical reply. Nevertheless it is strictly in point ; and you feel it ; and you 
cannot question one of my quotations ! I directed the public eye to the pontiff', and 
his throne, beaming with holiness ! Your own writer, Guiciardini, speaking of the 
popes, even so late as those of the sixteenth century, says, — " He was esteemed a 
good pope in those days, who did not exceed in wickedness, the worst of men I" 

Alexander VI. was a reproach to human nature, and died by a mistake ; taking 
that poisoned chalice which he had prepared for another! Julius II. was so notori- 
ously wicked that "he was a scandal to the whole church. He filled Ilaly with 
rapine, war, and blood." Pope Leo X. was not a believer in the immortaliiy of the 
•oul; nor even in any doctrine of Christianity ; he was a spirhual juggler : he called 
the gospel of Christ "a lucrative fiction!" And to a cardinal who offered him conso- 
lation in his dying moments, by a text of holy writ, he exclaimed " Away with your 
baubles of texts P' — Paul iii. and Julius iii. "were such licentious characters that no 
modest man can write, or read their lives without blushing." The popes of ih(> darker 
ages, the tenth century, for instance, and up towards the dawn of the Rcfonnatiou, 



46 ROMA.V CATHOLIC CO.VTROVERST. 

were in all respects, rivals of the Roman pagan Emperors. To their utmost licentious- 
ness, and lewdness, they added cruelty more revolting than even that of theirs! 
Witness John X., John XXII., and XXIII. and Innocent MIL, who made the 
Tallies of Piedmont flow like streams, ^^-ith the blood of thousands of innocents ! 

If there was the operation of an "infallible rule" in the Romish church, there 
would at least be some traces of an exact and conspicuous harmony. But the " living 
rule and judge" itself has caused the reverse of all this. The example of iEneas 
Sylvius was honest and instructive. Before he became Pope Pius II. he had zealously 
defended the council of Basil against the Roman court. AVhen challenged for advo- 
cating opposite sentiments when created a pope, he replied that " as Sylvius, he tras 
a dwnnabh heretic, but as Pope Pius II. he was an orthodox pontiff.'' And it is a 
notorious fact, that in the struggles of Rome to gain unlimited power, your "infallible 
jadge" originated almost all the political wars of Europe: and all the di%-isions in the 
church lefore the bishops \-ielded up their rights; and before the temporal princes 
were brought to place their necks under the haughty priests' heel ! In proof of this I 
refer the curious reader toHallam's Hist, of the Middle Ages, vol. 1. chap. 7. And 
Stillingfleet on the Divisions of the Rom. Church, ch. 5. 

In reference to the disputes about doctrines, let the priests name one contested point 
settled, finallv, by this infallible judge. Has the question about the Virgin Mar\''s 
•'immaculate conception," been settled ? No. Have the disputes been settled rela- 
tive to the kind of worship due to the natural blood of Christ, which raged between the 
Franciscans and Dominicans, in the fourteenth centur\' : and again, a century after 
this, under Pius II. ? No, the pope's interference rather made it worse. Has your 
infallibility' been able to compose the theological wars between the Cahinistic 
Jansenists, and the Arminian Jesuits? Everj" infallible interposition made the flame? 
blaze still more fiercely. "N^Tio taught sen^ants to rebel against their lawful prince, 
and seize the throne? Your infallible judge, in the person of Pope Zachan.-, and of 
Gregory VIII. who put his heel on the emperor's neck. — 'Your infallible." who kin- 
dled the terrible w-ars in Germany, and over all Europe: the ghostly arrogance of 
your infalUble judge, climbing to civil power, and setting nation against nation in 
order to weaken their power. — ^AMio set whole nations against their lawful rulers ? 
"The infalUble pope," who suspended ci%il laws, and stopped commerce; and spread 
civil rebellion over the land. "Who massacred the Huguonots, the Waldenses, and 
Lollards? The hired assassins of the " infalUble judge" of Rome, which celebrated 
the Parisian massacre by a solemn Te Deum I AMio changed the doctrines and the 
decrees, and the institutions of heaven? Your infalUble judge, — who has corrupted 
the doctrines of the Bible ; added five sacraments, unknown to the early church, and 
contrary to Christ's solemn commands : who has, also, instituted the various orders 
of lazy and vicious monks, friars, and nuns, to devour the surplus product of the 
people's industry. WTio, professes to convert virtue into ^-ice ; and \-ice into virtue ? 
Let your r5 ell armine answer, — -'the pope, who can transubstantiate sin into duty, and 
duty inio sin ! De Rom. Pontif. Lib. iv. cap. 5. — ^\^lo can dispense with law, and 
right? Let your own Pope Gregory iii. in 8. and iv., answer it: — "■ Possumus fyc. 
We can dispense against law and right! See also Extravag. Comm. 208. And 
Labbeus, vol. 19. p. 924. MVho seats himself on God's throne, and usurps his prero- 
gatives ? Your pope who arrogates the right and power to grant indulgences : who 
demands confession of sin to be made to him and his priests ; who absolves all sine at 
a regular tariff; who delivers from purgatorj^; and sends the most vicious and ungodly 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTR,OVERST» 47 

men to heaven, for money, according to the chancery book mentioned by Espence* 
Who founded the helHsh Inquisition, and turned loose on the human race, such a mon- 
ster as the inquisitor Torquemada ? " The infallible judge," your pope, whose 
servants have repeatedly gratified the royal courts of Spain with the Moloch sacrifices 
of human beings, at an Auto de Fe ! 

Such are the legitimate fruits of the exercise of your Rule. Let the world judge of 
the tree, by these poisonous and deadly fruits. 

Vril. We have the consent of the greatest andbestof the Fathers against your rule, 
and most decisively in favor of our rule. 

These quotations I shall reserve for the present. They will come in appropriately 
at the close of our discussion on the rule of faith. 

IX. Your rule is the instrument by which you have established claims that go to 
annihilate all liberty, civil and religious, from the face of the earth. You deny God's 
word to the people unless they have a written permission from a priest, condescending" 
to allow him to hear his Maker speaking unto him ! But with even this permission, 
you deny him the rights of private judgment, or even to think with that soul which the 
Almighty has given him. He must think, and reason, and believe, just as the lordly 
priest dictates. The prelate exerts the same tyranny over the priest, and the pope 
over the prelate. And in those kingdoms where popery is the established religion, 
priestcraft eats out the very existence of civil liberty. I point to Spahi, to Rome, 
to Naples, to Austria ; and say, behold, fellow citizens, the melancholy proof. All 
the doctrines of supremacy, and toleration, and union of church and state, are genuine 
popery, begotten and nursed, and matured by your pope. And what is the state of 
our Republic ? I see the holy and lovely genius of Liberty walking forth over our 
happy plains, in her fair robes and glory, and calling her happy votaries to every 
national blessing and happiness. And near her pathway we perceive a fierce lion 
in his den ; his face peering from his dark and disguised cavern ; but his claws are 
pared, and his teeth broken : he is flapping his lusty sides with his tail ; waiting with 
impatience for his claws to grow, and his teeth to be whetted, his eyes, the while, 
gleaming dark and unsubduable wrath. His blood shot eyes are ever on the fair 
Genius of Liberty, and he is meditating a ferocious assault upon her, the moment he 
prowls forth, when the sun shall be setting over the land ! 

X. And last: neither prelate nor priest can give their flocks any decisive evidence 
that they are lawful, and ordained pastors. 

Were it even possible that you could establish apostolical succession, you cannot 
prove a legal ordination. For, first, no priest has the true and essentially necessary 
CALL of the christian people. A man takes it into his head to go to a catholic semi- 
nary ; after his term is out, without the least evidence of spiritual conversion by the 
grace of the Holy Ghost, he presents himself to the bishop, and is ordained, and then 
he is stationed in a chapel; say St. Patrick's, or St. Peter's. The gospel call of a 
christian people is never asked. And I do question gravely, if you, gentlemen priests, 
do really understand what a gospel call is ! 

Second. — The office of priest as you take it, (not as ray Episcopalian brctfiron take 
it,) is unknown to the Christianity of the New Testament. It is an outrageous imposi- 
tion on scripture and reason. I challenge any man to produce me one ]>assage, justly 
and correctly translated, in all the New Testament, wherein the office or oven name 
of priest is ever applied to a successor of the apostolical teachers. The Greek was 
used by the Holy Ghost in the New Testament. Now there is not in .all the Greek 



48 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

thereof, or in any truly and correctly translated passage, one instance of the tm* 
ministry of Christ being called piiests in the visible church. By assuming the name 
and office of priest, the catholics overthrow the priesthood of Christ, and his one. 
final, and only offering of a sacrifice. " By this one offering, he has, for ever, per- 
fected them that are sanctified." But the catholics call their officiating men priests^ 
simply, and only, for this reason, that they offer up the sacrifice of the mass, — even a 
sacrifice, in the room of Christ's one, only, and never to be repeated sacrifice! By 
this very name of priest, assumed by them, do they deliberately and designedly over- 
throw our Lord's blessed and perfect atonement ! 

As surely ihen, as this sacrifice was perfect, and needed never to be repeated, so 
surely are there no such things as priests to offer sacrifice by the will of God ! 

Thirdly and last : There is not a Romish priest in existence, who can prove his 
ordination : because not one of them can prove the existence of the bishop's intention^ 
in that rite. In this " Sacramental rite," your own council of Trent, Sess. 7. declared 
that he ivho denies that the intention of the officiating minister is nut necessary to the 
efficacy of the sacrament, is to be anathema. Now, unless the " holy bishop," who 
ordained you, gentlemen, had the intention in his soul, conscience, and heart, really 
and truly to ordain you ; or if his mind happened to waver ; or to wander after some 
object, — in fact, if the talisman and magic charm of intention was, in any measure, 
wanting, then you are not ordained. And what is more, if you venture to set up pre- 
tensions to ordination without the perfect evidence that the bishop had the said intention, 
you are not only not ordained, but you are absolutely under the holy ban of the council 
of Trent ; and exposed to damnation ! ! 

Now, I defy any of you, gentlemen, with all the aid of your " infallibility," to 
prove this intention. The witnesses of the scene cannot prove it. You cannot 
yourselves prove it ; because you could not penetrate the mind of the bishop. The 
bishop himself cannot prove it : he can produce no e\idence to satisfy any one : he 
has not the least recollection on the subject. None but God can tell whether he had 
the INTENTION. But, most assuredly, without this unattainable evidence, you are 
ruined ! Without it, not a soul of you can prove your ordination. Without it, you 
are living in a mortal sin, — for any thing you know to the contrary. 

Hence we arrive at the most certain conclusion that you have neither an " infal- 
lible rule," nor legitimate pope, prelate, priest, or church, before God or man ! 

I am. Gentlemen, Yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER V. 

It opens with a discussion on ingratitude, — Dr. B's claims to sympathy, — his defeat, — hii 

presumptuous challenge of the priests of New York! 

" Your next claim rests on your claims to be a ' Gentleman, and Writer for the Middle 
Dutch Church ;' and this claim is supported by language not usual with those who whisper 
with the interior spirit and interpret the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost.' " 

"You say the Catholic Clergy are 'a polluted and immoral Priesthood,' that the celibacy 
of the priests is a ' pleasant joke.' The same foul and gross slaver is sputtered through your 
last letter." 

" This third claim rests on your letter in the ' Christian Intelligencer' of Saturday, in 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 49 

which you and your ' virtuous ladies' recommend the printing of the obscene tale and 
slander, ' Lorette."' 

Note. — The priests allude here to a well written little book called " Lorette, or the history 
of the daughter of a Canadian Nun." It is a true narrative of the atrocious morals of priests 
and nuns; and contains an interesting account of the conversion of the Nun, her mother, 
and others. The truth is, the picture of morals drawn from the life in this book, has 
galled our priests beyond measure. 

I had no other concern in this book, the second edition of which is already nearly sold, 
than simply the reading of the M. S. and recommending it. It never was shown to "the virtu- 
ous and highly intelligent ladies of the Middle Dutch Church." It was submitted by its author, 
formerly a Presbyterian minister in Q,uebec, to a few eminently intelligent and virtuous 
ladies ; members of the Presbyterian church ; and they cheerfully accorded to its author, 
their hearty recommendation of it. 

I addressed a card in confidence, to Mr. Levins, the rude author of the repeated assaults 
on " the virtuous ladies of the Middle Dutch church," stating to him the above facts. After 
that, instead of feeling the appeal made to him, as to a gentleman, he became ten fold more 
rude and insulting ! We proceed with extracts: — 

" Do you seriously. Rev. Sir, intend this answer as a proofthat the Bible is the word of 
God? Here there is nothing but a series of assertions. A sseHions ave not j^roqfs. Where 
is the form of argument, — where the ' form of sound words ?' Where is the logical concate 
nation ? JVlierc the convincing and logical conclusion ?" 

That you may know the work you have to execute, v/e register the propositions contain- 
ed in your answer. 

Question. How do you kno%v the Bible to be the word of God ? 

Answer 1st. " I know it from its external evidence of prophecy." Prove it. 

2nd. " I know it from its external evidence of miracles." Prove it. 

"3d. "I know it from its external evidence of the gift of tongues." Prove it. 

4th. " I know it from its internal evidence, namely, its majesty." Prove it. 

5th. " I know it from its internal evidence, its purity." Prove it. 

6th. "I know it from its internal evidence, its sublimity." Prove it. 

7th. ''I know it from its internal evidence, its efficacy in convincing." Prove it. 

'8th. "I know it from its internal evidence, its efficacy in converting." Prove it. 

Dth. " I know it from its internal evidence, its efficacy in comforting." Prove it. 

10th. " I know it from its internal evidence, its perfect harmony in all its parts." Prove it. 

11th. "I know it from its internal evidence, its uncorrupted preservation." Prove it. 

12th. "I know it from the historical evidence of its own tradition." Prove it. 

13th, "I know it from the Hebrews and Jews." Prove it. 

14th. "I know it from the African Church." Prove it. 

15th. " I know it from the Church of the Albigenscs and Waldenscs." Prove it. 

ICth. " And I know it from the Boman Chirch^ Prove it. 

"Your only rule of faith and judge of controversy, the written word of God, speaking '.o 
us in the scriptures of the Old Testament and the New, is utterly abando.ved by you. 
When asked to prove the Bible to be the word of God, you say you prove it " from t/u; 
external evidence of prophecy, and of miracles: and tlie gift of tongues, and that thi: 
CHURCH tells YOU SHE HAS THIS EVIDENCE, from the authors of the books of the holy scrip- 
tures." Here then, Rev. Sir, is your unecpuvocal admission of what we contend for. We 
contend that without the testimony of the Church, the Bible could never l)e proved to bo flu* 
word of God. This you admit." 

My reader is fully aware that 1 have, all along, admitted the hii^loricdl tradiiion of ilu^ ciuls- 
tian church, as a prominent portion of the external evidence. 

But the conclusion drawn in tlie next sentence by our priests, is no lean (\xtruordina;v. 
than the above discovery. 

"Therefore" — that is " because the Biblcis thuy i>roved to be the inppirccl wtird ofGo(' " — 



50 EOMAV CATHOLIC CO>tKOVERsr- 

• therrfore. Sir. the written word of God. in the scriptures of the Old Testamcni anA of the 
yeic. IS not the ruU of faith established by Christ '. It is an article cf christian behef. thai the 
Bible is the word of God. But this article of belief could not be known trona the Bible alone, 
how then can it be said Christ established, as a rule of faith, that w4iich never could brin^ 
man to the faith of the divinity of the scriptures. Strange. Rev. Su-. that so able a divine as 
yon, never detected the absurdity cf your Protestant rule of faith and jud^e of controversy. 
until it has been fully demonstrated to you. by your Catholic antagonists." 

•• If you will but consult the learned work of Adamus Contzin, on the four gospels, and 
also tlie great work of Serrerius, you will find that no fewer than twenty several bocks of 
scripture have wholly perished. ' These books.' says Dr. Brownlee. ■ referred to by deists 
and Romish priests, such as Jasher and urtain epistles and gospels, were not given by 
inspiration.' The trick of your design is obvious. 

Here our priests specify the books lost. •• Tht hook of the tears of the Lord :" — • the book of 
Nathan, '■ of Iddo.'' " of Gad" — -the epistle /rom Laodicea." They add. in the profound 
science of Bfblical lore, and settle a mooted point which has divided the first scholars, — al- 
though they have yet to learn the Hebrew alphabet I St. 3Iatthew. whose Hebrew gospel 
did not exist, in his c. iXAii. 9. quotes words spoken by the prophet Jeremy, which are not 
now fotind in the ■writings of the prophet. St. Matthew, also c. ii. v. 23. says, **it wa* 
spoken by the prophets" — "He shall be called a Nazarene." Where, in any of the pro- 
phetic cooks no-.v existing, is Christ called a Nazarene ? The becks, then of the prophet* 
here alluded to by St. 3Ianhev.-. must have perished. 

'•This was the belief. Rev. Sir, of the great St. John Chrysosiom. whom we are better 
pleased to follcw. than the preacher in tiie iliddle Dutch Church. In his 9th Horn, on St. 
Matt, he says, -many of the prophetical monuments have perished. For the Jews being 
careless, and not only careless, but also impious, they have carelessly lost some of tbes^ 
monuments, others they have partly burnt, partly torn in pieces. Saint Justin, writing 
against Trvphon. shews that the Jews maliciously destroyed many of the books of the Old 
Tesiaiaent. Yet against the testimony of the scriptures, and in opposition to the most re- 
spectable historical evidence, preacher Brownlee assens. • there is no inspired hook lost '' 
Truly, Rev. preacher. 

Queni Deas \-ult perdere. prius dementat ;' 
And your insane flippancy cf assertich. if not sross iexorance of the subject on wh:cii you 
write, places ycu before the "christian public. ' in the ludicrous attitude of a. frantic fanatic, 
declaiming to a conclave of virtuous ladies, on the all sufficiency of a mutilated rule of faith- 
while you leave to your opponents the rich and noble eloquence of the Chrysostoms. the 
the Gregorys, the Basils, the Justins. the Cyprians. &c." 

" You iinblushinglv proclaim us idolaters, because we venerate the saints of God. and pay 
a Jcccrit respect to images." 

Here follow pretended quotatioiis from Luther and MelarKthon. in which these worthies, the 
las: in the world who would do it. axe made to praise and laud, and almost worship, the pu- 
rity of •• Holy Mother :"' 

Next, tliere follows a unique illustration of a notorious Jesiiit maxim, namely : " when 
you are charged \\ith a sentiment, or a crime, retort, and deliberately charge it back on your 
fje ; and make him as ridiculous as you can.'' 

'• No priest, says Dr. Brownlee, can prove his orduiation, for he caimot prove thai the 
biafaop who ordained him, had the ' magic charm of intention.' Really, most worthy preacher. 
* writer,* and 'gentleman,' we must greet you. &.c. — "' 

* Your intellect has strange biasses; its propensity to • sfMin/in^,' is, we fear, incurable. 
How fitlv it illustrates * the Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost.'— 'Though thou shouldst 
bray a fool in a morter with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart fi-om him." YooK 
doctrine of irJerJion is amons the most ludicrous that could emanate from a rheumatic brain 
It would uproot all confidence bet^veen man and man. dissolve the laws of ever}- system of 
compact, and taint with suspicion every pledge of trust. But to apply your puerile argument 



EOMA>' CATHOLIC CO'TRO VERS Y. 51 

to yourself. In the course of ministerial duties, you are asked to baptize a child. You bap- 
tize it. According to your law of intention the parents of the child cannot prove your inten- 
tion to baptize, therefore the child is not baptized ! This is your wondrous logic. Will the 
preacher who did concoct it. ever prove his rule of faith? No. But, gentle Doctor, are 
you a christian ? Were you baptized ? Certainly not ; for, according to your own doctrine, 
you cannot prove the intention of the parson who baptised you. Ergo, you are no christian. 
Q,. E. D. You interpret the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost' to your ' virtuous' cro- 
nies. Can they have faith in the interpretation ? They cannot prove your intention. WhrU 
think you of your logic, dear Doctor? You are now, Rev. Sir, openly and effectually de- 
feated, on your rule of faith. " 

" You are informed that the Jews, during their captivity at Babylon, lost the knowledge of 
the old Hebrew tongue, in which the law and the prophets were written, and in the after period 
of their existence, spoke Syriac, a mixture of Hebrew and Chaldaic. Those who understood 
the Hebrew were few. It is also admitted by all, that, before the coming of Christ, there was 
no Syriac version of the holy scripture. Hence, for fourteen generations, the Jews had not 
the Bible in their own original vernacular language. But the law and the prophets were 
read in their synagogues, and the psalms Avere sung in a language they did not understand." 

The letter is closed with a quotation from Roscoe, in which an eulogium is gravely uttered 
on the atheistic and ■profligate popes ! 

But we give them credit for the wittiest and truest sentence, which closes their letter V, 
It is a bit of choice sarcasm, but purely accidental ; for our priests are ' smart' only by chance. 
Comparing the church of Rome to the bark of St. Peter, they very honestly call the whols 
Romish priesthood, "the practised crew that man ^Ae o^ooJ/i/resse/ .'" 



DISSERTATION 

ON THE DIVINE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 

We were unwilling to be turned out of our direct course in order to meet infidel 
objections. The following argument, therefore, was placed more than once before 
our Letters, while the Priests reiterated their deistical questions. 

Priests : 1st. " How do you know the Bible to be the word of God ?" 
Ans. ] St. From the external evidence of prophecy, which has been, and is now 
fulfilling before our eyes: (See the proof in Bishop Newton on the prophecies) and 
of miracles by the inspired writers, and the gift of tongues : by which all the 
nations heard the gospel in their own native language. Also from internal evidence ; 
namely, their majesty which every christian, and every reasonable man may see on 
every page, contrasted with every ^iwian writer : from their purity ^vhich no man 
could have conceived, or framed in his writings ; from their sublimity, in the concep- 
tions and descriptions of God, of heaven, of hell, which no uninspired man could 
execute : from their efficacy in convincing and converting sinners ; and comforting 
the saints : no human composure ever has done this. The sacred writings, which 
have been the instrument containing the gospel, have done what no human writer 
can do, or ever has done : and, from their uncorrupt preservation. While the whole 
persecuting power of pagan Rome was bent on their destruction ; and innimierable 
errorists and heretics sought to corrupt them, — neither they, nor Rome have succeeded. 
All the Roman priests, and all the Voltaire and Paine school, being of one mind here, 
cannot prove one sentence, far less one inspired book, lost. And we challenge these 
bold slanderers of God's "pure and perfect word," to prove one — even one oi their 
(Slanders, 



oz Roman catholic controverst. 

Moreover, the Bible is proved to be the word of God from the historical evidence 
OK TRADITION. To the christian church, as well as the Jewish church, were com- 
mitted the oracles of God. The hundreds of thousands of christians who lived in the 
days of the apostles, received these inspired books from the apostles, and evangelists : 
and being fully satisfied of their inspiration, by their internal evidence, and by the 
miracles and prophesies, and tongues, given in proof, by God's inspired servants, the 
christian members of the Church transmitted tliem to their cliildren, with their certi- 
fication of this evidence ; and they to their children, until they have reached u«. 
And all the sections of the churches have done this. The Bible is handed down to us 
by the Jews and Hebrews : by the Syriac churches, still existing in India ; as Dr. 
Buchanan who lately visited them, testifies : and by the Greek church, more ancient 
and more pure than that of Rome : and by the famous African churches, who in the 
days of Augustine absolutely denied their dependence on the Roman Church : by 
the Waldensian churches, descended from the ancient Italick churches : and who 
possessed the very ancient Latin version, called the Old Italick version of the Bible, 
before the vulgate was written : by the ancient and apostolic churches of the Culdees 
in England, in Scotland, in Ireland, and also in Spain^ — in all of which the gospel 
ilourished for centuries before they w^ere overrun by the idolatrous emisaries of 
.Popery ! And finally, they have been transmitted also by the humble aid of the Roman 
Catholi-c church. Moreover, all the ancient versions of the Bible, made in the first, 
second, and third centuries, in Asia, in Africa, and Europe, have the valid authority 
of so many most undoubted traditions confirming the evidence of the existence of the 
original word of God': and lastly, the enemies of the church, such as Celsus, Por- 
plivry, Zosimus, and Julian the apostate, do all bear their testimony to the authenti- 
city and genuineness of the apostolical writings. 

Thus, on the strength of this full and iiTcsistible moral evidence, do we believe the 
Bible to be the word of God. We are not so weak and bigotted, and foolish as to 
believe it, merely on the church's tradition. The internal evidence is as strong, this 
day, on our minds, as it ever was ; and we have the constant fulfilling of predictions 
before our eyes, over the churches, and the world. And, finally, we see it manifestly 
PROVED in the conviction and conversion of ever}^ one that is brought into the fold of 
God, by the Holy Spirit. Every christian conversion by the gospel read and preached, 
is a fresh and irresistible demonstration that the Bible is most certainly, and evidently 
the word of God. 

Priests : 2d. " How do you know which books v/ere written b}' divine inspiration T 
The Bible cannot prove its own inspiration." 

Ans. 2d. No Roman Catholic, or Protestant, so far as I know, ever said to a deist, 
that the Bible proves its own authenticity and genuineness. Your Bull Unigenitus, 
for instance, does not, and cannot prove its own authenticity ; the Magna Cliarta, and 
our own Declaration of Independence do not prove their own authenticity. None 
but papists can mistake here. Their defective education, and their wretched theologA^ 
induce them to think that there is only on^ form of evidence to establish the authenti- 
city and divinity of the Bible, — and that is, — ^^ Hohj Mother's testimony and autho- 
rity r 

We know " v/liich books were written by divine inspiration, in the following per- 
fe>ctly satisfactory manner. 

The authors of each of the books of the holy scriptures, first gave evidence before 
the church, by working miracles, by prophesying, and speaking tongues, that they 



ROMAN CATHOLIC C0^TROVERSr.. 5$ 

were the accredited messengers of God. This being settled, they wrote those bodks 
which bear their names, at the command of God. " Thus saith the Lord," was the 
evidence that they were enjoined to speak and write. This estabhshed their divine 
inspiration. (See Hos. viii. 12— John xx. 31— Rom. xv. 4: 2 Tim. iii. 16 — Rev. i. 
11 &c. &c., also the beginning of each of Paul's ejistles.) Having written them by 
inspiration, they delivered them publicly to the church, certified in their hand writing. 
This established their authenticity and genuineness : the church saw and knew that 
the?e holy authors did most certainly write the books which bear their name. Ancj 
the churches in Asia, and in Greece, and in Africa, and in Italy, and in all Europe, 
handed them down from generation to generation, just as the Magna Charta of Eng- 
land, or the Declaration of Independence is by tradition, handec down from age to age. 
And, finally, just these books w'nch compose the Bible, and :io other books v/hatever, 
have had these evidences. And, thus, we know, by the most certain demonstration, 
what books were given to us by divine inspiration -t^T-nd what books are not inspired ; 
and therefore, apocryphal. 

Priests : 3d. '• Does the Bible contain the whole word of God ?" 

Ans. 3d. It does. And the same evidence which establishes the fact of their di- 
vine inspiration, fully establishes this. There is no inspired book lost. Those books 
referred to by deists and the Romish priests, as lost, such as Jasher, and certain epis- 
tles and gospels, were not given by inspiration. And we defy all the priesthood of 
Rome to prove their inspiration. 

Let them not shift the question. We make a public call on you, priests, to prove 
the inspiration of these lost books. If they do not finally enter on the proof of theu 
inspiration, then we shall set it down as a public recantation of their error ; and a 
confession of their utter-oi-nfitness to prove their position. We know they cannot : 
and we are assured they dare not offer any defence of their inspiration. Remember 
your own words, the mere fact of their being written by a prophet, or an Apostle, as- 
Barnabas, is no evidence, alone, of their inspiration. Produce the evidence of their 
divinity which we have for "all scripture." You cannot: and you knciu that you 
cannot. 

Gentleman, it is just as impossible that any of the inspired books could be lost, by 
: the carelessness of the church, or the cunning of the enemy, as it is impossible that a 
book of the common law of the United States, or of old England, or any part of the 
Magna Charta, or our Declaration of Independence, can be abstracted and lost! 

Such a loss could not take place in the days of the A])ostlcs ; for they could bear 
their testimony to all that was inspired ; and against all that was forged. It could not 
take place after their death, for before the death of the last of the Apostles, namely, 
John — copies of the holy scriptures, even of the entire and perfect canon, were mul- 
tiplied over Asia, Africa and Europe. 

Priests : 4. How can you prove that the scriptures alone are the sufficient rule !" 

Ans. 4. By the strongest testimony that can exist: namely, the testimon}' of 
Almighty God. And bold and unblushing must tliat christian deist be who shall dare 
to give the lie to the Almighty. Psalm xix.— " The law of the Lord is perfect : con- 
verting the soul; tlie testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple: ''the 
judgments of the Lord are true and altogether righteous." "By them is thy servant 
warned ; and in keeping of them there is great reward." The whole of Psalm cxix ; 
and particularly these :—" Through tliy ])rece})ts I get understanding:— " Thy worJ 
i« a lamp to my feet ; u light to my path." " Thy word is very pure :" &c. Isaioli, 

a* 



54 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

viii. 19, 20. " If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no h'ght 
in them." John v. 39. " Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eter- 
nal hfe: and they are they which testify of me." John xvii. 17. " Sanctify them 
through thy truth. Thy word is truth." 2 Pet. i. 19. "We have a more sure word 
of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed," &c. 2 Tim. iii. 15. "Tlie 
holy scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation," &e. And, finally, they 
make the " the man of God perfect, and thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 

I shall conclude this, by noticing briefly several vulgar errors of Roman catholic 
priests, which we deem incurable. 1st. The invariable reply of a priest when asked 
what he conceives to be the Protestant rule of faith, is this : " The scriptures as under- 
stood by every person of sound judgment are their only rWe offaith.''^ This is as wan- 
ton a misrepresentation as would be that of a criminal \\ho affirms that, " it is not the 
law of the land, hut my own construction of that law, b}^ which I am to be tried i" — 
Besides, we object to this, becauCe it actually palms on the Protestant church, the 
very error which we condemn in popery! The Roman catholic rule of faith, is this: 
*'The whole word of God, written and unwritten, as explained by the catholic or 
imiversal church," That is, — as it is explained by the fallible judgments of each of 
the fallible individuals who constitute that church. It is ludicrous that the best of 
their polemics should thus charge on us the essential principle of their own system ; 
and then maintain a lusty warfare against us for holding it ! 

2d. The Romish priests always assume it as a fact that they are the succes- 
sors of the apostles ; and are, by heaven, invested with power equal to them ! 3d. 
They deny that Christ commanded his apostles to write any of the New Testament . 
scriptures ! He commanded his apostles " to go and teach all nations." " And this,'^ 
say they, by a most arbitrarj^ construction, "always means oral instruction. They 
were sent to preach, not to icrite books I" 

Christ certainly commanded them to write the New Testament scriptures. See 
Rev.i. 10, 11, 17, 19; Luke xxiv. 44, 47; 2d Tim, iii. 16. 

And if he did not, then the New Testament is not given by his inspiration. For 
God's act of inspiring them to write, was his act of commanding them to write the 
New Testament. If they wrote without his command, they went beyond their com- 
mission. Such is the inveterate spirit of deism pervading popery ! 4th. That "the 
J3ible is the most obscure book in the world." This simplj- means that the sj-stem 
of popery cannot be found in it by common readers. And as the priests alone can 
find that in the scriptures, and other vmtings, which God never put there, nor au- 
thorized ; hence it is necessary to the very existence of popery, that the priests shoukl 
be constituted the only perso7is ivho can explain scripture, and keep their victim's con- 
science! .5th. That " Christians, pre%'ious to the writing of the New Testament, had 
not the scriptures as a rule." This is spoken in the face of clear evidence to the con- 
trary. " Search the scriptures," said our Lord. They had the Old Testament, and 
the benefit of inspired teachers. Lastly: "Khe Roman Catholic priests betray at 
<'very step, the painful deficiency of their education. Biblical literature forms no 
portion whatever of their education. On no other principle can we account for their 
ludicrous blimderiugs. For instance, our priests confound internal evidence with 
external, as in the following quotation from their letter V. : — "But if you can produce 
no text which can precisely determine the number of canonical books, then it evidently 
follows that there is something to be believed, which cannot be found in the scriptures 
themselves, and, by consequence, the vrritten word of God alone, is neither a /w/^ nor 



ROMAN CAtHOLlC CONTROVERSY. 55 

sufficient rule of faith, If you could have produced the text, you would not hav« 
referred us to the passages in holy writ, which can never prove, nor were they ever 
intended to prove, that the scriptures alone, are a sufficient rule of fgdth." See reply 
in No. 2, above. 



LETTER VI. 

TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 

Rev. Gentlemen. — I finished in my last, my ten arguments against your Roman 
catholic rule of faith. I have reason to know that the enlightened public are satisfied 
with the perfect conclusiveness of these argumenls. Your pretensions to an infallible 
rule being entirely annihilated, — the claims set forth in behalf of our rule and Judge 
of controversy, are of course, without a rival, from your annihilated system. I call 
the attention of the Protestant, and Roman catholic public to the fact that the priests 
have not examined nor refuted one of these ten arguments : they have not even ap- 
proached one of them. The strongest thing they have said is this ; — " What has all 
this to do with the defence of your Protestant rule?" This is really amusing. So 
utterly destitute do you seem to be of the true logic, and the scientific rules of defence 
and offence, — that even while your whole magazine of ammunition was in the act of 
being blown up, about your ears, you gravely ask us, "pray what has all this to do 
with your defence of the Protestant rule?" I had thought, gentlemen, that there 
were only two claims set up ; that of the Protestant rule in the holy scriptures ; in 
which the infallible Judge, namely. Almighty God, the Spirit speaks unto us, by that 
which is already revealed : and closed for ever, and pronounced by the Almighty, 
perfect : and all-sufRcient "to make the man of God perfect :" and on the other hand, 
the Roman catholic rule ; which your church, in fatal, but characteristic union with 
deists, sets up in opposition to the holy bible : even as, with unparalleled daring and 
impiety, you place the pope and council on the throne of judgment, in rivalship w^ith 
Almighty God ! And of these two rival claimants, one of them, namely, your rule, 
and the whole of your presumptuous assertions, being, I trust, demolished and annihi- 
lated : of course, our rule, stands forward alone, and without any rival. 

I shall now redeem my pledge, and take up your various objections, errors, and 
misstatements. I have postponed the examination of them, to this place ; because 
every one saw that you threw them out, — not at all because you, yourselves, believed 
them : but simply because you availed yourselves of every dithcult}-, and obstacle, 
to impede us in our demolition of your rule. You had not the merit, nor even the 
m^ans ofthi-owlag down a golden apple, to turn us out of our course. 

I. One of the main objections, and that on which my ojiponents establish the last 
hopes of their sinking cause, is taken from their view of traditions. — Their church 
like that of the Hebrew church, had the oracles of God, committed to tliem; they con- 
veyed them down to these times. This seems to be an innocent })Osition : but it was 
assumed as a position on which to plant the Antichristian lever, by which they have 
moved and convulsed the civil and political world. "They have been," as Augus- 
tine says, "the librarian of the cliurch;" or as anotlier shrewdly observes, "tliemore 
carrier of the mail bag;" to transmit to a whale vicinity, the contents of that mail 
bag, for their own benefit, and that of others. 



56 ROMAN CATHOLIC CCNTROVERST. 

But could the gravest spectator refrain from laughter, did the post boy, summoning 
tlie communit}' together, gravely harangue them thus ? " It is well known to you all, 
that the general government has committed to my trust one of the lines, by which the 
contents of this mail bag is carried : therefore by virtue of this trust-worthiness. I de- 
mand the right and honor of being all the carriers o[ all the lines in the world ! I 
claim also the right of keeping, in my power, all the contents of the mail lines ; and of 
enacting my own personal explanations of every letter in them, and those to whom 
they are directed, have, as every one knows, no right, nor power, whatever, 
to do this I And, hark ye, I am not to be trifled with : I have a right, as mail-carrier, 
to make as much gain of you all as I can. And let the obstinate know, in a word, 
that the fires of purgatory await every opposer of my will ! I have not done yet, — 1 
claim, moreover, in right of being letter carrier, to have the spiritual and temporal 
power over each soul in the whole district through which I pass. It is my right to 
fix your destiny here, to open heaven to you, or shut its gate irrevocably, for the 
DUES paid to me according to my will and pleasure ! 

This modest claim set up by the post hoy, is literally what the pope and his priests 
have set up. Because they happened to be the mail carriers of o??e line : because as 
one section of the church, they carried the Bible down to their vicinity : they are the 
entire carriers of all lines ; and they arrogate extravagant ghostly claims to spiritual 
dominion over men's souls, bodies, and property! Had it not been for the incon- 
ceivable blindness and ignorance of the dark ages, these claims would have been 
received only with indignation, — or to say the least, with peals of laughter! The 
post boy's ra^■ings were soberness compared to this. 

II. The whole of their doctrine touching traditio>'s, is involved in fanaticism 
and extravagance. For instance : — 

1st. Availing themselves of the ambiguity of the word, they use it to mean, at one 
time, the transmission of the Bible to our" times : at another, to mean those oral doc- 
trines, undefined, invisible, artificial, and intangible. — that are convenient for a mis- 
chievous aud designing power, — as an instrument to originate, and establish new 
doctrines and rites. 

2d. Tlie Romish church holds that, by traditio>- alone, the entire evidence of the 
divine inspiration of the Bible is established. She merges the w^hole internal evidence 
and the other branches of the external, in this, for one grand selfish object, namely, — 
gain. 

3. She pronounces judgment in her own behalf, that she is tee only church of 
God. And all the churches that have flourished in Syria. Greece, Africa, and 
Europe, are in her all absorbing and ambitious views, utterly nothing I Hence, no 
attention is to be paid to their historical monuments, or their transmission of the 
scriptures ! 

4. Having arrogated to herself this exclusive title, she assumes the right of determin- 
ing that HER EXCLUSIVE TRADITION bcstows on the Bible all the evidence necessary 
to settle its inspiration, and its authority ! 

5. This simple handing down of the Bible, she says, gives her the entire right of 
not only determining the authority, but of fixing the meaning of God's word : and of 
dictating a religion to the conscience of all God's subjects. Nay, like the tyrant, intox- 
icated with the fury of ambition, she claims from the humble act of convej'ing down 
the scriptures, an unbounded ghostly power over all the souls, and the bodies, and the 
property of men ! She is thence a God on earth : she pardons sin, and creates new 



fiOMAr? CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



St 



objects of worship, by the power of canonizing. And to crown the whole tale of her 
unparalleled claims, wherever she meets, even in the pages of Protestants, with the 
word Churchy or Catholic ; she assumes it as granted that she only is meant, and 
that all our Protestant champions, even when opposing her, meant only homage to 
her, because they defended *• the church/' the " catholic," or, general Churcli, 
which of course, could mean only the Roman sect ! Such unheard of reasoning, gen- 
tlemen, pervades all your letters. 

II. There is a peculiar sentiment interwoven in all the o-bjectionsof my opponent?: 
and it is deserving of notice, as it is characteristic of catholicity at liome, and in 
Europe ; it is this. The priesthood is a spiritual nobility, and exclusive aristocracy, of 
an awful order. They are in fact, every thing ; and the poor laity are nothing, utterly 
nothing! Hence the terms in our priests' letter, "The poor ignorant people," of 
" scanty intellects," and "weak capacities ; " Strange, to think that the Redeemer 
should require such to pick out their religion from the scriptures !" And this system 
deems it not enough to brutalize the laity ; it also insults them. And hence the coi>- 
clusion which the priests draw from the fact of their degradation, is as curious in point 
of logic, as it is destitute of all benevolent feeling ; — namely, because they are ignorant, 
therefore, we will not allow them the great means appointed by God to instruct them ; 
the laity shall not have the right to hear what God says to them, without a priest's 
written license ! 

" But God has given his word as a light to our feet, and a lamp to our path." " The 
man of God is made perfect by the scriptures, and is thoroughly furnished by them 
unto all good works." " No, my child," says Holy Mother by her priests, " that light 
does not mean light ; that lamp is not the lamp ; God's law, though perfect, is "a falla^ 
cious," and mischievous rule ; " perfect" does not mean " sufficient !" " And mark me, 
my son," sa^^s she, — " we are ve-ry watchful, and very benevolent ; though men may 
have thinking powers, they have no right before me, to think ! Though God may ha\'^ 
given to each private man, a judgment, yet none have the rights of private judgment 
with me ! Though there are some things hard to be understood, and only some, it is 
true, — yet it is far the safest way to keep out of the laity's hands all the plain and easy 
parts too. Though some men, namely, the " unlearned and unstable do wrest the 
scriptures," yet it will be an act of pure benevolence to keep away the temptation, and 
abstract the whole Bible from the hands of all ! 

But the apostle does not say that any of the scriptures are beyond the possibility of 
being understood. They are SOavorira hard, that is, not impossible to be understood. 
Would it not be a little more benevolent, still, to make the peoi)le " learned," and 
and thence " stable," by a solid education ? That is what you heretics saj" ; but 
says Holy Mother, — "There is nothing 0(iual to a cloud of darkness brooding over tlije 
mind of our ' low, vulgar, and poor ignorant laity ;' it is highly salutary ; our priestly 
influence would vanish in six weeks, if this cloud were unhajjpily dispersed. For 
we know tliis by our bitter experience, ever since the squabble between Mr. Martin 
Luther and pope Leo X." As certainly as the " poor ignorant people" begin to read, 
they will think for themselves: then they will reclaim from us the rights "of your 
accursed private judginnnt;" and the right of going directly to God liimsolf, to have 
their sius i)ardonod for nothing ! Then the asses which we have long bridled and ridden, 
most joyfully, peacefully, and prolitably, will slip the noose. Then farewell to the 
gains and sweets of jjriestcrafl ; and the shrines of the great goddess, the queen of 
heaven ! ! 



'58 TIOMAN CAT Bt) Lie CD"STROVEIlSY. 

III. Another promine'm feature in youi logic, gentlemen, has heen the vicious cir- 
cle. When we demand of the Roman Catholics, — "How do you prove your ehurch 
to be infallible ? And whence do you establish the marks of the true church ?" They 
appeal to Matt, xxviii. 19. ; and to the passage relative to Peter, the rock. In fact 
they seek proofs of their church out of the holy scriptures. This their fathers have 
done ; and even Bellarmine, De Verbo Dei, Lib. i. 2. says, — " Sacra Scriptura regu- 
)a credsndi certissima tutissimaque sit &c. Sacred Scripture is the most certain and 
most safe rule of faith. On the other hand in the whole course of this controversy, 
the priests have fiercely maintained that the scriptures, their inspiration, and their 
autliority depend on the church! And thus "Holy Mother," reasons in a circle, 
after the following* manner. A certain estate is in suit, in chancery ; a female of 
rather a suspicious character, Avith a few characteristic attendants, not a whit holier 
than they s'hould be, appears in court, with a parchment roll in her hand ; she claims 
the property on the evidence of that parchment roll. "Who are you?" says the 
court; "Who I am you can know by the most perfect evidence of this parchment 
writing." They look into the roll : there is nothing there but what is unfavorable to 
her. "But what, and whence is this roll?" says the court, ""What that deed is, 
and whence its evidence, you can know," says she, "in the most certain manner 
from my oral testimony. My lips certify that will ; and that vnll certifies me !" This 
is the literal argument of our Romish priests ! ! 

IV. There is one of your objections, which I am constrained once more to notice. 
It is your stereotype objection in all your ora/, and written discussions. Besides it is 
copied out of Mumford, and Milner, and put into every Roman catholic's lips. It is 
this : " The Protestant rule is the Bible as explained by each, by private judgment and 
his own private interpretation.^^ This has been answered and exposed ten thousand 
times by our write.rs : and yet, it is deliberately and constantly urged. Now, we 
pronounce this as deliberate a slander, as it would be on my part, did I assert that you 
recite the prayers of Mohammed at Mass ! No Protestant ever said that the Bible, 
as explained by each one, by private interpretation, is the rule. The reason is obvi- 
ous ; it involves a contradiction ; the Bible manifestly cannot be the rule, if each 
man's private sentiment be the rule. The priest, therefore, who reiterates this charge 
contradicts himself, and bears false witness against his neighbor. And yet I assure 
my readers, that they will find our priests recklessly renewing this slanderous charge, 
to the end. The reason is manifestly this : did they take our own doctrine, in our 
own words, and sense, it were utterly impossible for them, for lack of matter, to 
advance one rational objection. The Protestant church unanimously proclaims that 
her RULE IS the v/ord of God; and the judge and interpreter is the Al- 
mighty God, speaking in it to us, plainly and clearly; because God in- 
tends that we should certainly understand him. 

V. When we urged on you, gentlemen, the fact of your corrupting the word of 
God, by adding to it the apocrypha, and traditions, which the fathers rejected, — you 
turned on us, and replied by charging on us, in genuine style of Jesuitism, the same 
sin. " We cannot refrain from laughter," as St. Jerome once said on a similar charge, 
to hear you very gravely asserting in your letter II. that "the Calvinists add to the 
go6pels, and to the epistles, the institutes of Calvin! — and the Heidleberg catechism 
to the apocalypse!" ^'And they add their professions (confessions) of ^iih to the 

.Bible." 

According to this unigiie and irresistible logic, we shall presently hear. i]t. 49serte^. 



ROMAN' CAtHOLlC CONTROVERSY. 59^ 

'that Dr. Power's last sermon in' St. Peter's, is an awful and impious Edition to the 
pope's bull, Uuigenitus ! And our priests sacred tonsure is an addition to the pope's 
tiara, and will make it no more the triple, but the quadruple crown ! What miracles 
will not the mysterious powers of Romish logic effect ! 

But, after all can it be possible that our meaning is misunderstood, when we say 
that the council of Trent has added many books to the sacred canon ? You are 
aware that the Tridentine Fathers declared certain books to be as much inspired, as 
the holy scriptures, and thence enjoined them to be read with the same " holy and 
pious veneration," as the rest of the scriptures. Now surely, you do not mean gravely 
to charge it on us, that we canonize as inspired, the catechisms, or confessions, far 
less the writings of private individuals ! 

VI. " The Hebrews" you say " were without the written word of God for 14 
generations ; hence the scriptures could not be their rule of faith." Gentlemen, yoa 
appear very learned in your letter II. You give a sort of dissertation on the Hebrews' 
losing their native tongue after the great captivity ; and the introduction of the Syriac 
among the Jews for fourteen generations, yau say, the Jews have not had the Old 
Testament in their vernacular ; it was read in Hebrew to them ; a tongue not under- 
stood. 

All this borrowed plumage is plucked from your convenient Mumford, the Jesuit. 
But I deny this utterly, and I call on you for his and your proof, that the Jews were 
without the scriptures in their vernacular tongue for fourteen generations. Mumford's 
assertion is no proof to you, or to me. I am prepared to prove your and his assertion 
utterly false. 

I shall name only one fact. Ezra, after the captivity, read! the book of the law to 
the people ; this shows beyond contradiction that they understood the Hebrew. He 
read the law, and, as a preacher, gave the sense, and made the people understand it. 
Ezra was not initiated into the edifying practice of praying and preaching, in Latin or 
Chinese, to his people ! And it is interesting to know, that all the Jews, except the 
apostate Jews, keep up this custom of Ezra ; the a'postate Jews, like you, continue the 
truly edifying and interesting habit of employing in the public worship, an unknown 
tongue ! This, by the way, might do with the Jews, who prayed only to him who- 
knows all tongues : but with you it is a fatal and foolish work ; and I beg you to look 
well to it ; for you ought to know that the Virgin Mary, '* the glorious Mediatrix," to 
whom the most of your prayers are offered, being a Jewess, knew Hebrew and Syriac, 
but nothing of the Latin, never having been at Rome! ! Hence all your prayers are 
thrown away upon her, even supposing you could get within the range of her sights 
and hearing ! 

VII. " If the scriptures had been the rule of faith," say you, *Mhe church would 
always have had them in writing , but before Moses, there was no writing; and in 
Christ's time, they had not the New Testament." We reply that in all periods before 
tlie written word was completed, the church had the same rule and judge. They had 
the word of God, uttered by inspiration from the lips of the patriarchs, and prophets, 
and from Christ, and his apostles. And the same judge, namely the Holy Ghoet 
spoke unto them, and determined all controversies, and all that was nccossaj'y to faith 
and sound morals. This favorite objection of our priestB, betrays gri at ignorance of 
biblical and historical knowledge. 

VIII. In your industrious zeal against the holy scriptures, you object t(» our rule, 
ihat if Christ had designed them for the rule, he would have commanded the disciple* 



60 ROM[AN' CATHOLIC CO.NTROVERSt. 

to write, and to distribute Bibles : on the contrary, he said, " Go and teach all nations :" 
and by "teaching," you assume, without proof, that instruction by the lip is meant. 

I beg again to reply, that " teaching," implies as much the use of writings^ as of 
oral instruction. And our Lord's command to teach, included as much an injunction 
to write, as to speak. Apostolical facts confirm this : they did write, as well as preach ; 
they declared that they were enjoined to write. See Rev. i. 19. And their writings 
they left to the church as a rule of faith. John xx. 31 ; Luke i. 3, 4 ; 2d Tim. iii. 16 ; 
Rom. xvi. 26. 

You object in words borrowed from Mumford, that, " if the scriptures were the rule 
of faith, the apostles would have procured the Bible to each different nation in its 
crvvn native tongue. But they did not, — and gave no orders to their successors to do 
it." — Letter II. I reply that you cannot prove that they did not enjoin them to do 
this. One thing is manifest from Paul's enjoining the speaking in known tongues : — 
that he and his associates did preach to the nations in their own native tongue. See 1 
Cor. xiv. 19. The apostle would have made a glorious figure, if he had preached the 
gospel to the plain Greeks in Chinese ; or taught the Romans in native Irish ! Or 
the Scotch and Irish in full flov/ing Latin! 

The fact is this, the Almighty set the mark of his strong reprobation against this 
popish foolery, by his gift of tongues to the apostles. Rather than permit his servants 
to insult the people, and offer an outrage to common sense, by talking to them, in an 
unknown tongue, God wrought a splendid miracle, and gave his preachers the gift o^ 
tongues. And finally, they used the Greek of the Hebraic idiom. And Greek, says 
Cicero, was spoken over all the east and the west. It is true, you object, again, with 
Mumford, "that it was only the well educated in these countries, who understood the 
Greek !" That is exactly v/hat we mean. And hence, in all nations there were 
multitudes of learned men who could render the Greek Septuagint, and the Greek New 
Testament into all the different languages, as Christianity spread among the nations. 
x\nd these men needed no command, — but that of reason and common sense, to move 
tliem to this duty. They were enjoined to teach all men. But without books, teaching 
could not be earned on, when the holy spirit of inspiration departed. While he was in 
the church, as before Moses ; and before the New Testament was written, the church 
having the law spoken by immediate revelations, could do without inspired writings ; 
but just as he was retiring, were the inspired writings filled up. And, in fine, it is a 
matter of historical fact, that the sacred writings were translated into various languages, 
even before the last of the apostles, and apostolical fathers died. Witness the ancient 
Syriac ; and soon after, the ancient Italick, or Latin version, before the Vulgate ; the ; 
Egyptian ; the Persian, the Ethiopian, the Sclavonic. See Home's Introd. vol. i. p. 96, 
and vol. ii. chap. v. where a minute account of them is given. 

IX. In every attempt at argument, gentlemen, I discover one of your besetting 
errors: it is this: you claim infallibility for the rule of your faith. But you have 
never preserved, nor even made, the distinction between objective and subjective infal- 
libility. In the Protestant rule of faith, there is an objective infallibility. It cannot 
be otherwise ; because Almighty God speaks to us in his holy scriptures. But there 
is no such thing as subjective infallibility. The subject on whom it operates is not 
infallible ; it does not make all men infallible in their views. By an accurate square 
rule of two feet, a carpenter is guided infallibly, in his accuracy, in building a house. 
But that same rule in the hands of a child, or a blind man, will not regulate the 
building: nor make the child, and the blind man infallibly accurate: and yet it is 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 61 

the same perfect rule in the hands of all three. The fault lies in the subject; not in 
the rule objectively. The royal psalmist David, distinctly recognizes this by the 
guidance of the Holy Spirit: — " Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous 
things out of thy law." Ps. cxix, 18. Gentlemen, you confound these two things, 
with studious care, in all your declamatory opposition to the holy scriptures. And 
the issue of your argument^ — pardon me, I mean no insult in calling it argument, — is 
worthy of this wretched logic. 

We have not, however, observed this mode of argument against your rule : for we 
have shown, it is believed, to the entire satisfaction of the christian public. — 1st. 
That you have no infallible rule whatever : because with the deistical school, you 
abandon the holy scriptures; and with characteristic malignity, even taunt the He- 
brew and Greek volumes, inspired by the Holy Ghost. 2d. That though you had 
•uch a rule, your church and priesthood could no more wield it, to the effecting of any 
practical application, than a man can do it, who is stricken blind ; or a wretched 
maniac who decks himself in a triple crown, and dreams that he is pope and the vicar 
of heaven! and 3d. That did even such a rule exist, your succession is utterly cut 
off and annihilated ; and that you have neither church, nor pope, nor priest, nor sacra- 
ment! 

X. I come now to your often repeated assertion, that "many, — nay, twenty books 
of the Old Testament are lost." And among these you reckon, " The book of the 
wars of God:" " Jasher," "Nathan," "Iddo," "Solomon's sayings," "the epistle 
from the Corinthians to Paul : the epistle from Laodicea." In reply — 1st. I shall for 
a moment suppose what you affirm to be correct. And as you make the church to be the 
infallible guardian and keeper of the holy scriptures, and also the very fountain of their 
purity and authority, it is evident on your own principles, that she has been guilty of 
a most scandalous and mortal sin, in permitting twenty books to be lost ? But you 
make the church the infallible rule. Here, then, your infallible rule has committed a 
mortal sin ; inasmuch as she has betrayed God's cause, and wantonly lost 20 books ! 
Either she is not the infallible rule, and keeper of God's word ; or no books are lost ! 

2d. The allusion to these books, as "Jasher," &c., by the inspired writer is no 
evidence of their inspiration, or their ever being a part of the holy canon. None of 
the inspired writers call them " scripture ;" none of them quote them as "scripture.'* 
They simply allude to them as St. Paul does, in some of his sayings and epistles to 
certain heathen poets. Thus, in the Acts, in his discourse to the Athenians, — Paul 
quotes a sentence found in Homer, and Hesiod : also in Plato, and in Virgil, ^n. vi. 
724 ; and the poet Aratus. And moreover, in Titus i. 12, Paul quotes the heathen 
poet Epimenides, and pronounces his testimony a moral truth. Here St. Paul does 
exactly no more than what the Old Testament writers do in referring to "Nathan," 
" Iddo," or " Gad." Do you pronounce Homer, Hesiod, and Epimenides, gravely, 
to be inspired writers? Are these men's writings, then, holy scriptures because St. 
Paul quoted them .' We all know that the Rev. father Levins, indeed, quotes his 
Shakespeare ten times more frecjuently than liis Bible : and far more accurate is he 
and more at home with Shakespeare than with the holy Bible. But we are not pre- 
pared to hear Homer, and Epimenides, and Shakespeare canonized! 

Your appeal, gentlemen, to Clirysostom does not help your sinking cause. I deny, 
and you must deny as well as I do, that lie calls these books " scripture," or a portion 
of the canon. You here attempt to palm an iini)osition on llie ignorant. And verily 
you shall have your reward. That eminent Fallier calls them "prophetical monu- 

7 



^ ROMAJr CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

ments ;" or remnants of prophetical times ; or Jewish national monuments. They were 
Tiot inspired works ; no honest man dare assert that they were ; he cannot prove it, if h« 
is so fool-hardy as to assert it. They were the national legends, traditions, or rab- 
binical books, containing historical sketches or expositions : but they were by no meaxM 
inspired. 

In the London republication of Leslie's '• Short way with the Jews," designed as a 
tract for the Jews, you will see a clear evidence and illustration of the idea I now 
advance. Many ancient rabbinical books were found to contain expositions of pas- 
sages relative to Messiah, in all respects favoring the views of christians ; and by aa 
edict of the rabbins, a command was given to the synagogues to destroy them. 
These "prophetical monuments" have been wantonly destroyed. You can see a 
copy of this Hebrew injunction, in the London edition of Leslie's " Short Way." 

I have only to add, that if you renew this charge " of twenty books being lost," 
without giving the public the full evidence of their divine inspiration, and of their 
having once formed a part of the sacred canon, then you, and Contzen, and Serrarius, 
and Mumford, do post yourselves as deliberate slanderers of God's holy word I 

XL "The epistle of Barnabas is authentic, but not inspired.'^ "Now," say you, 
— "if the certainty of receiving the epistles of Paul, pure and entire from his handa, 
as an apostle, be your reason for admitting their inspiration, tell us why you reject the 
epistle of Barnabas, the apostle?" Lett. 2. 

Even admitting 3'our absurd position that there is no other evidence of inspiration, 
than that of tradition, there is no difficulty here in answering your question. Barna- 
bas never laid claims to inspiration ; he did not lay his epistle before the churches as 
inspired : hence the church ncA^er declared it inspired : nor received as such. Henoe 
it wants the internal evidence. 

I cannot omit here an amusing circumstance, relative to an extraordinary discovery 
which my profoundly learned opponents have made in their last letter. Though I 
have formally included tradition, and the church's testimony, in the list, as one of the 
e\'idences of the truth of divine inspiration, they have just discovered, for the first 
time, that we really do hold that ; and they exult with triumph that we have made 
the concession ! ! But then, gentlemen, you take care not to tell your intelligent de- 
votees, that we hold to the tradition of historical testimony of all the churches, in Asia, 
Greece, Africa, and Europe ; — and not in your ridiculous, and exclusive manner, to 
the sect of the Roman church only ! 

XIL In your letters you have more than once made emphatic allusions to the 
" Arian Cobbler," and to "old women," and "virtuous females." I must, for want 
of room postpone the objection of the "Cobbler" which you and Mr. Hughes, copy 
out of old Mumford ; and which you improve, actually out of Volney : of this in my 
next. I was at a loss for some time, to penetrate the reason why you speak so 
solemnly, so often, and so affectionately about "old women," and "\drtuous old 
ladies." After some pains I have discovered the reason. A pious man, especially a 
Roman priest, is always very grateful. And I have no doubt that 3'ou make theee 
frequent allusions with a pious view of cherishing the memory of good old Pope Joan ; 
that pious and sly " old woman" and "virtuous female," who contrived to obtain a 
cardinal's hat; and finally, to chmb up into St. Peter's chair! You have proud 
reasons to cherish her memory, — good old soul ! And as pious and chaste sons, to 
speak fondly aud gratefally of such "old women;" and " such virtuous female*." 
You can never forget **the chair Stercorarius ;" nor the street of Rome immortalized 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONtROVERSr. 63 

by her labors. We cannot blame you for being grateful. It was not every pope 
that made such a present to "Holy Mother," and to " St. Peter's chair," — as Pope 
Joan did ; as the old Roman distich, composed by an orthodox monk, has fully shown : 

Tiz. — 

" Papa pater patruin peperit papissa papilum ! ! 

Will our learned priests oblige the reading public with a literal version of this curi- 
ous monkish verse ; and accompany it with historical notes, and a commentary ? 

You have felt the force of our remark on the unfair writer Milner. Hence you pee- 
vishly remark, — " Your attack on the great Milner reminds us of the jack-ass kicking 
the dead lion." Tliere is a slight error here ; but such things will occur with even 
accurate printers. It should have been, — " it reminds us of the lion kicking the dead 
jack-ass !" But it is of no consequence. Even admitting him to be " the dead lion,''^ 
— I beg you to know that no Protestant ever strikes a fallen, — far less a dead foe! 
McGavin in The Glasgow Protestant, and another writer in The London Protestant 
Journal, vol. i. 683, have actually left nothing to be done, in despatching and skinning 
"the dead lion." They have annihilated every one of his objections : and exposed 
the infamy of that unfair writer, who never could quote an opponent without mis- 
statement : nor shape an argument without sophistry ; nor detail a simple narrative, 
without falsehood and fraud ! 

I am, gentlemen, your most ob't and humble servant, 

W. C. B. 

EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER VI. 

" The letter opens with a long discussion about 'the stamp which nature impresses on dif- 
ferent animals.' ' So it is with fools and dunces.' Then follows a lamentation over Dr. 
B. s ' utter failure to prove his rule.' ' Who, not gifted with prophetic vision, could have 
supposed a teacher in Israel, a preacher in the Middle Dutch Church, a familiar with the 
interior spirit, an erudite able to interpret every crabbed idiom in the ' Hebrew and Greek 
of the Holy Ghost," a ^gentleman,'' who arrogates to himself the sole right to be the * writer, 
to his flock, and the director of '»irt?toMS ladies,' who could have supposed he would have 
shrunk from the logical probation and defence of a cause to which he had invited discus- 
sion !" 

" Had we foreseen your unenviable qualities of mind, you should not have numbered us 
among your controvesial antagonists ; you might still, for aught it would affect us, have been 
the Grand Lama of the Middle Dutch Church, and the interpreter of the 'Hebrew and Greek 
of the Holy Ghost,' for your challenge would not have been honored by our acceptance." 

"Your assertions were returned to you in the order of sixteen propositions. Why was your 
answer given under this form ? Did you suppose it would have been admitted by us as ce- 
tablishing the Bible to be the word of God? If you did, the sixteen propositions have fur- 
nislied another form of testimony." 

The priests, then, proceed to go over Dr. B.'s proofs of the divine inspiration ; and declare 
them " puerile," and mere " assertions." " Tliere is nothing but assertion, and a reforeiu-e 
to bishop Newton : and, on this, forsooth, you hook your infallible conclusion — the Bible iit 
the word of (iod ! This is really, utterly, and disgracefully puerile, contemptible, farcical. 
Yet, this is a preacher's answer in defence of his rule of faith ! This is the answer of a 
Judge in Israel, who can, when he lists, evoke the interior spirit, and interpret the " Hebrew 
and Greek of the Holy Ghost?" 

"This is the Q,. E. D. of your interior apirit, and your logical basis for an article of fuith ; 
How will John Calvin greet you on the river Styx ? Your proofs noto are typical of what 
your shade will be then. Again your opponents aay, — prove your answers, logical doctors" 



64 ROMAN CATHOLIC CO-^TROVERST.^ 

Here follows a tedious repetition of the only idea that they have ever yet advanced on this 
point, namely : that "the inspiration of the Bible is proved ajily from the traditionary testi- 
mony of the church: that 'tlie church' is their sect, and that exclusively." 

We have all along admitted tliis branch of testimony to the divine inspiration of the holy 
scriptures: but we have insisted on the testimony of all the branches of the church of Christ. 
The following exhibits the eternal circle in Avhich all Romish priests move. *' But this evi- 
dence he has from the testimony of the church ; therefore, without the testimony of the 
church, he could not believe the inspiration of the scnptnres. But the inspiration of the 
scriptures is an article of christian belief; and to this belief, the Doctor could not be brought 
by the scriptures alone. Tlierefore, the scriptures alone are not a sufficient rule of faith. — 
Q. E. D." 

" You reject the inspiration of the epistle of St, Barnabas on the authority of the Catholic 
church ; you admit the inspiration of the gospel of St. Luke on the same authority, and you 
have the assurance to tell us, ' we are not so weak and bigoted and foolish, as to believe it,. 
merely on the church's ti'adition !' This 'mere carrier of the mail bag' as you impiously call 
the church of Christ, is authority with you for rejecting as inspired scripture, the v\'riting of 
an apostle, and for admitting as inspired scripture the writings of one who ^vas not an apos- 
tle, St. Luke ; and this authority which you pretend to revere on this all important point you 
reject with contempt, when there is question of ascertaining its meaning." 

"Where does the Catholic Church tell you that the books referred as lost were not inspired^ 
Would St. Matthew, think you, refer the Jews to uninspired prophecies, for proof that Christ 
was the Messiah foretold by the prophets? It was spoken by the prophets, 'He shall be 
called a Nazarene, — Matt, c. ii. 5, 23. The books of the prophets, wherein Christ was 
railed a Nazarene, have perished, foi- he is n«t called a Nazarens in all the prophetical 
books Avhich we have." 

The following sets the deism of our priests in a clear light : — 

'• But what are we to think of the man who libels the AlmfgJity by pertinaciously assertrng^ 
in the face of the public that the Almighty established as the only rule of faith, that which 
common sense alone tells us could not be the only rule of faith. The inspiration and cano- 
nicity of the scriptures are articles of faith. These articles cannot be proved by the scrip- 
tures alone ; therefore, the scriptures are not the only rule of faith." 

Note. — The priests, in their zeal to show that the Jews had, in their captivity in Babylon, 
■utterly lost the Hebrew language, ludicrously contradict their own leading tenet, by assert- 
ini" that Ezra translated the Bible into their vernacular tongue. Here are their words : — 

" Hence we conclude, that, when Ezra, ' after the captivity, read the book of the law to the 
people,' he acted both the part of a preacher and interpreter. To have the people under- 
stand the law which he read, he must have translated it for them." 

Romish priests always stoutly maintain that an infallible rule makes all those who use it, 
infallible also. Hence the follov;ing extravagance : "Your distinction between subjective 
and objective infallil)ility, is worthy of the logician, and great magician of the Middle Dutch 
Church. The holy scriptures are infallible, because they are the word of God. '^But there 
is no such thing as subjective infallibility.' So then the Almighty God, who is your inter- 
preter of the holy scriptures and not your own private spirit, does not infallibly teach you 
the truth! " 

It is curious to see the priests deprecating and denying the vicious circle, and at the same 
moment employing it in defence of Holy Mother ! " Our church," say they, " established by 
miracles, comes into court, without spot or tcrinkle!^^ Yes ! the polluted lady of Babylon, 
" the mother of harlots," as John said, " comes into court unspotted, with the testament of 
her divine spouse. It is readily admitted to be genuine." — that is, exclusively, saj- the priests , 
by the church's oicn testimony. " Its contents are duly examined ; and behold this document, 
already proved and admitted to be genuine, — that is by her own word — says : ' That Christ 
promised to be with his church to the end of the world.' ' That he would send her the Holy 
Ghost to teach h£r all truth.;' she is called 'tlie pillar and the ground of truth ;' and thi* 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. (J5 

Dr. Brownlee calls a vicious circle, which in logic is called a sophism, proving the same by the 
same, in every respect. Here you see, the document is proved to he a genuine record, on the 
respectable testimony of the Catlwlic church, before the infallibility of the church is proved from th* 
document." 

Finally, in their Letter III., the priests thus express the Roman catholic sentiments, rela- 
tive to their vulgate : — 

" It is painful to be obliged to expose your ignorance where you ought to be better informed. 
Are you not aware, Sir, that the Vulgate, which you call the worst of all translations, and 
which you say is considered as such by all enlightened Protestants, was partly made and 
partly corrected by the first biblical scholar, and one of the greatest and most holy men, who 
ever lived, St. Jerome. You ought to know that this version was made when the best and 
purest copies of the Hebrew, Chaldaic, Greek and Latin, together with the polyglots of 
Origcn, were to be had. That this version has been constantly in the hands of the Western 
church, in all its extent, during fifteen centuries. You ought to know, on the other hand, 
that the Hebrew and Greek originals have been, during many ages, in the hands of wander- 
ing Jews, and divided oppressed Asiatics, and that, therefore, you cannot possibly answer for 
the changes they may have undergone. This eircumstance ought to cause you to observe deep 
silence on this point. Are j-^ou ignorant that the most learned Protestants in biblical criti- 
cism such as Mill, Walton, Polyg. have professed the greatest esteem for the Latin Vulgate. 
The learned Grotius writes of the Vulgate, thus : '* Vulgatum interpretem semper plurimi 
feci, non modo quod nulla dogmata insalubria continet, sed etiani quod multum habet in se 
eruditionis." Grot, in annot. in Vet. Test. And, notwithstanding this mass of respectable 
testimony, the preacher of the Middle Dutch Church tells us that the Vulgate is the worst of 
ail possible translations" — Q,uid domini facient, audent cum talia /wrcs ? 



LETTER VII. 

"Strike, but liear me !" — Saying of a Greek General. 

Rev. Gentlemen : — I have gone over your last letter carefully. You have not 
adduced one solitary new idea. There is no novelty, even in the style ; it is the old 
and deep stained ribaldry, dyed in the wool ; and setting at defiance, every process ta 
wa^h or bleach it ! — The intelligent christian will do me the justice to admit that the 
Protestant rule hasheen fully established : and that the Ron:ian rule has been likewise 
demolished by our ten arguments, which have not even been noticed, far less answered^ 
by the reverend priests. 

I shall tlierefore close my reply to the remaining infidel objectioris, urged with such 
appalling intemperance against the only rule of faith, — the word of god, and the 

ONLY JUDGE OF CONTROVERSY, THE HOLY SPIRIT SPEAKING TO US IN IT. 

I. I shall review your hifidel insinuations, drawn from tcrtuai di.fficulties. The 
christian and ingenious scholar, when he meets with difficulties in the holy Bible, 
would seek the solution of them on the pages of those judicious biblical writers, who 
have devoted their time and talents to the illustration of biblical literature. Ho would 
examine the original; and study Hochart, Whitby, Lightfoot, *'Lux in Tenebris;" or 
your own modern writers, .)ahn, and Bug,and lie would discover that {here is not on« 
textual difhculty, which lu'ts not Ijcon satisfactorily solved. 

It is charact(;ristic of the unnatural infidel's criticism, and opposition to truth, t() 
sport appan^nt contradictions, and uiagnitij^ difficulties, triumphanfly detcrttMl in his 
father's wi.l and testament! This/you have done, gentlenuMi, with the uuiliir- 
nity of unnatural aonsl And what gains the infidel bv this? Just as nuuh as you ti.^ 



66 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

in 5'our infidel crusade ! Unholy and unchristian is that cause, beyond all gainsaying,- 
which requires for its defence, a traitorous and parricidal thrust, — powerless though it 
be, — at the holy scriptures of our God and Saviour ! 

I would here observe that the authority and genuineness of our coinmon law, or Decla- 
ration of independence, would not be affected by some slight mistakes of the transcriber 
or printer. We maintain the same in regard to the Bible. While not one sentence i« 
marred ; not one item lost : not one doctrine altered, we may admit that a transcriber^ 
not being inspired, may have mis-spelled words, or even substituted one proper nam© 
for another. Would the omission of a name, or the alteration of a name, in som« 
copies of the signers of seventy-six, render null and void the whole instrument 
signed? Surely not. Apply this principle to the point before us. 

In 2 Kings viii. 26. Ahaziah is said to have been 22 years old when he began to 
reign : in 2 Chron. xxii. 2. he is said to have been 42. The Hebrews had no arithme- 
tical figures : they used the letters of the alphabet. And in this case a transcriber had 
the letter wiem, whose power is 40, instead of the letter caph, whose power is 20. And 
the Hebrew scholar knows that these two letters, wdth the difference of a slight perpen- 
dicular dash, are much alike. Does this change of a letter affect any article of faith ? 

Matt. i. 17. There are said to be fourteen generations between Salathiel and Christ ; 
yet thirteen only are recorded. Whitby has sol ved it, by showing that by Jeconias, 
named in verse 11, is meant Jehoiachim, the eldest son of Josias: and that Jeconias- 
named in the 12th verse was Jehoiakim's son, who was the father of Salathiel. Thi* 
completes the fourteenth generation. Dr. Lightfoot advocates the following solution- 
It was a custom, nay, even an axiom in the Jewish schools, to reduce things and num- 
bers, to the very same name when they were nearly alike. This was avowedly to aid 
the memory. I beg leave to refer to his book Hora Hthraica. Now, Matthew ha» 
observed the three fold division of Jewish chronology ; namely, the era before the 
kings ; the era under the kings ; and the era of theii national declension down to the 
time of Messiah. And to help the memor3% after the manner of the Hebrew school, 
he has divided each of the three eras into fourteen generations. Now, no scholar can 
suppose this to be taken in its strict and literal sense, says the Doctor. For it is just 
as true that Matthew has designedly left out three kings in the 8th verse, in order to 
make 14 generations in the first era, as that he has reckoned the third era 14 genera- 
lions, v/liile it contains 13 only. All this- was strictly in keeping with the national 
custom or rule of the Jews, which Matthew did not invent, but follow : for it was to 
the Hebrews that he was writing. See Poll Synop. in loco. 

Luke iii. 35, 36. " Salah was the son of Cainan, who was the son of Arphaxad." 
Genesis records it thus: — " Arphaxad begat Salah." One solution is this: — Salali 
and Cainan were the names of one person: the latter being the cognomen: and 
hence they read it thus, — Salah the Cainan, who was the son of Arphaxad. Others 
are of opinion that as Cainan is found only in the Septuagint Greek translation,, 
and not in the Hebrew text of Moses, it was inserted into some copies of the Greek 
Testament, out of those copies of the Septuagint, which had this word. Beza states- 
that in his copy the word Cainan was not found ; and lately Dr. Hales has shown 
that this extra name is an interpolation in the Greek Septuagint. See his New Ana- 
lysis, vol. 1. p. 90 — 94. And from this it had been transfered into some copies of 
Luke by a transcriber. It has been observed by an eminent Biblical scholar, that 
all the variations, and all the various readings which friend or foe can discover, do 
not alter the aspect of one doctrine, or a single article of our creed. Home in 



rtOMAN CATHOLIC CON TROVERS F. 67 

vol. i. appendix iii. has devoted 64 pages to a minute examination of these textual 
difficulties. To these, for want of room, I beg to refer my reader. 

You have presented an objection from two other texts. The first is Matt, xxvii. 
9. " Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet." And the 
words quoted are not found anywhere in Jeremiah, but in Zechariah. From this you 
infer that a part of Jeremiah has been lost : and, therefore, his book is mutilated and the 
Bible imperfect. This is uttered in the reckless style of those of whose theological 
education an accurate and enlightened Bible criticism forms no part whatever. The 
echolar knows that there are solutions without supposing any such outrageous conclu- 
sion. First. — These words may have been first spoken by Jeremiah, and then 
recorded, afterwards, by Zechariah. Or, second : — we may conclude with Bishop 
Hall and Griesbach, that a transcriber may have, in certain copies, written Jriou for 
Zriou, that is, the contracted form of Jeremiah, instead of the contracted form of 
Zechariah. Or, third : — We may say with others, that Zechariah was also called by 
the name of Jeremiah, as his cognomen. See instances of this in Home, vol. 1. p. 
538. One apostle was sometimes called Joses ; at other times, Barnabas. And he 
who was nominated but not chosen to the apostleship, is called Joseph, and BarsabaSy 
and Justus. 

The second text from which you raise an objection against "the perfect law" of 
God, is Matthew ii. 23. "That it might be fulfilled which was spol^ren by the 
prophets, he shall be called a NAZARENE." Now this is no where found in the 
prophets' writings : and your conclusion is, — that some portion of the Holy Scrip- 
tures is lost. Here it might be quite enough to demand, — what is lost ? " Why," 
gay you, — "this phrase or sentence is lost, — He shall be called a Nazarene." 
Then 1 deny the position : for it stands here in the Bible before your eyes : and if it 
ever had been omitted, then here it is restored by the inspired penman. And, there- 
fore, you the objectors being judges, it is not lost ! 

I shall give another solution. Matthew refers to no one prophet : " it was spoken 
by the prophets." He refers to no one sentiment, or sentence ; he alludes to some 
marked characteristic of Christ, noticed by the holy prophets generally. And accord- 
ing to the four rules laid down by Wolfius and Rosenmuller in reference to the mode 
pursued by the New Testament writers, in their quotations out of the Old Testament,, 
we perceive that they often quoted the meaning, instead of the passage literally : that 
is, they give us the sense, instead of the formal and literal (quotation : and especially 
so, when they were quoting, not out of one prophet, but from " the prophets," in 
order to give a condensed view of the passage. Surenhusius the learned HebrcAr 
professor in Amsterdam, has observed in his Biblos Katallages, p. 2. that this phrase 
"to fuKil what was said," was a familiar phrase of the Talmudists; and used by the 
learned Jews, when they alledgcd not the very words of Moses and the prophets, but 
their setisc, which was deduced as a certain anxiom from them. 

Now apply this rule of legitimate criticism to the words of Matthew under discup- 
sion. A Nazarene was the epithet used among the Hebrews and Jews, of old. u> 
denote the meanest and most despised of mankind. This was the character of tlu^ men 
of Nazareth. Now, it was foretold by David, Psalm xxii, and Ixix. 9, J2; and Isiuah 
iii. andliii; and also by Zoch. xi. 12, and 13, that our Lord Jesus Christ was to 
appear, on earth, a most huin])le and despised man of sorrows. And though born in 
Bethleliem, of David's royal line, he was brought up in Na/.arolh among the Naza- 
renes: and was, tlicrefore, by the malignant Jews, called and reproached as a Naza- 



68 EOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVEEST. 

rene. And thus, what was spoken by " the prophets" was literally fulfilled ; and 
hence, no part of their writings is lost. 

II. Another all prevailing error in your letters is this : In opposition to the rule of 
faith ordained by God, you constantly make this assumption, that Protestants sepa- 
rate the Bible from the holy ministry and oral teaching. On this assumption is based 
every objection, brought forward in your questions in Lett. 4 : on this are based all 
your objections relative to the supposed obscurity of the Bible : and all that steady and 
unflinching opposition of the Pope and his priests to Bible societies ; and the catholic 
distribution of the scriptures among the laity. Yet no assurance to the contrary, and 
no exposure of the unmanly misrepresentation, will induce the priests to do justice to 
truth and themselves, as well as to us. We never separate oral instruction from the 
reading of the scriptures. And we know from experience that, in proportion as the 
Bible is gratuitously distributed, is the call for the ministry urgent from the people where 
the scriptures are read. The appointed ministry of Christ, acting in his name, read 
and expound the scriptures. And as the Bible is read, pastor and people hear God 
speaking imto them ; and learn the law from the Most High. 

III. You object out of the Jesuits Mumford, and Milner, that there are certain 
things, such as infant baptism, and the change of the Sabbath, which scripture does 
not settle; and which tradition of the Church alone can. 

There is a twofold error in my opponent's argument here : — 

1st. Even admitting that these are to be established by tradition, it is the consum- 
mation of sacerdotal arrogance in the Roman catholic priests to despise the Syriac, and 
the Greek, and the African, and the ancientltalickchurches, and tocleiim the absolute 
and exclusive right of handing down that which all the other churches did hand down 
by tradition. 

2d. These ordinances were established by scripture as well as the faithful testimony 
of all the churches. See 1 Cor. xvi. ], 2. Here St. Paul gives a divine injunction as 
much to observe the Sabbath on the first day of the week, as to make a collection for 
the poor on that day. And the scriptures call the first day of the week the Lord's 
day. And for infant baptism, see Matt, xxviii. 19; and Acts ii. 38, 39. Now, I am 
not going to dictate to my honored Baptist brethren. They have a right to hear 
God's word and to interpret that word spoken to them and to me ; just as you claim 
the right to interpret what " Holy Mother" says to you, gentlemen. And availing 
ourselves of the right of hearing for ourselves, we say God commands us to teach, or 
disciple, and baptize " all nations." And as infants constitute the third item of na- 
tions, as much as men and women do the other two, we fairly infer that we have the 
command to baptize our infants. A christian brother says, " infants are not expressly 
named." "True, but neither is man, or woman mentioned: infants are as much 
mentioned as adults." And, moreover, in Acts iii. 38, 39. we have another testimony : 
and we erect our argument thus : When an ordinance and a promise are combined 
and connected, as here, all those mentioned and named in the promise, have a right 
to the ordinance : but the promise here connected with baptism, includes infants and 
parents : here are the words literally rendered " Repent ye," [in the plural,] " and 
be baptized every one of you; for the promise is to you and your children." There- 
fore infants ought to be baptized. If Protestant brethren differ, — so do Jesuits and 
Jansenists, Franciscans and Dominicans under their infallible rule ! 

You lay much stress on the traditions, alluded to by Paul in 2 Thess. iii. 6. And 



ROMA^ CAfnOLie CiiNt'ltOVJE^SY, G^ 

you infer from this, that besides the written word, Paul delivered unwritten traditions, 
"Hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle." 

Now, gentlemen, it cannot have escaped you, that the Apostle mentions three dis" 
tinct classes of traditions ; namely, the traditions of men, which he reprobates ; Coh 
ii. 8. and which our Lord also condemned, Mark vii. 9. Then there were the tradi- 
tions touching things indifferent ; or mere opinions, such as frequency of communion,r 
and so forth ; and finally, traditions by inspiration : and which regard the same doc- 
trines and ordinances exhibited in the New Testament. Thus Paul lirst gave the 
Corinthians the Lord's Supper by oral tradition, and then he gave it by writings 
" For I have received of the Lord, that which also / delivered,'^ or gave you, that is, by 
tradition, from Christ. These traditions fiom Christ are the same as immediate com- 
munications by inspiration — and were, like all revelations from God, established to 
the satisfaction and faith of the church, by the evidence internal and external so often 
mentioned already. 

Now if we, or an angel from heaven bring any thing by a tradition without aposto- 
lical and miraculous evidence, let that tradition, and its fanatical votary be accursed. 
If your traditions, gentlemen, are of men, we reject them as "accursed" — if they 
came from God, then they are accompanied by the evidence of miracles, prophecy, 
and tongues. But your traditions have none of this divine evidence. Therefore they 
are human inventions ; and are " accursed." 

IV. Of the Latin Vulgate. — I had called this version, after deliberate examina-- 
tion "the worst of the worst translations." You usher in your defence with these 
words, — "It is painful to be obliged to expose your (Dr. B's.) ignorance, where you 
ought to be better informed." This benevolence, in which you are as generously 
sincere, I dare say, as if you had been administering extreme unction to your victim, 
— is quite out of keeping, and in bad taste. I invoke the whole body of the learned, 
now to judge between us, — both Roman Catholic, and Protestants; and let them pro- 
nounce who is profoundly ignorant of translations. 

In reference to the Latin Vulgate, I beg leave to remark, that Jerome finished 
his labors on his'' translation in A. D. 384. There existed, before him, the old Italick 
version from the Greek Vulgate. This version is the oldest in Latin : it was made 
in the close of the secont/ century. Jerome endeavored to improve on this version; 
but, in too many instances, it was corrupted. I refer you, gentlemen, to the profound 
critic Nolan, on the integrity of the Greek Vulgate. In the second chapter of Luke, 
verse 33, the Greek Vatican, and the Vulgate make Joseph the father of our Lord ; 
" pater illius, et mater." — And this eminent critic shows that these two versions, 
on this text, are "grossly corrupt." See Nolan p. 169, note. And Lowth has 
shown, that in some instances, the Latin Vulgate is found "to be notoriously defi- 
cient in expressing the sense." See his translation oflsaiah, p. Ixxviii. 

You seem lo think, gentlemen, in your Letter III. that Jerome possessed a cojw of 
Origen's Hexapla, or Polyglolt, as you call it. Jerome had not so many facilities as 
your exuberant imagination has conceived. He had not the Hexapla : and you 
ought to have known this. He was compelled to perform a long voyage, from Rome 
to CsDsarea, in order to see and consult that book. See Home, vol. ii. p. 198. You 
have betrayed an utter ignorance of tlie subject: and, I am no hyixicritc, — 1 am not 
•orry in exposing your ignorance, pro bono publico! 

Yet severely as we may criticise (his old version, I assure you gcnlk'nien, I did not 
allude to Jerome's true version, when I called it the worst of translations. I alluded 



7V' ROMA"* CATHOLIC CONTEOVEKSt^ 

to your Vulgate, as it now exists ; and as it is spread out before the English reader 
in the Douay Bible. The Roman cathohcs seek to palm this on the pubhc, as the 
genuine vcrsiion of Jerome. But, this pretension ; and all your quotations from ap- 
proving Protestants, such as Grotius, Walton, and so on, — are not only to no pur- 
pose; but absolutely deceptions; and you, had you been Greek and Hebrew scholars, 
would have known all tliis. I here, beg leave to challenge any scholar, in good faith, 
10 produce one of our learned Protestants who applauds the Roman Latin Vulgate, 

AS IT NOW IS. 

Of the valuable labors of Jerome, none approved more highl\', — and none are 
more able, by virtue of their accomplished education, to approve more highly, than 
the Protestants. But can you possibly be ignorant of what Nolan has given ample 
evidence, that St. Augustine himself, though he did indeed appro\e of the labors of 
Jerome, did not use his version : he used the old Italick verson to the day of his 
death. See Xulan p. 15. aud the learned Home has shown that, from the days of 
Cassiodorus, down to Alcuin, in the 8th century-, •* the text of the Vulgate fell into 
great confusion : and was disfigured by the innumerable mistakes of copyists." But 
the most curious part of the historj' of the V^ulgate remains to be told. The Council 
of Trent, small, — very small in nimibers; and by the best judges, namely the Pro- 
testant hterati, deemed still smaller in literature and theology [see also P. Sarpi Lib. 
2. s. 51.] did actually pronounce the Vulgate with all its palpable errors, to be inspi- 
red and divine. Like father Le\'iDS, whom I have had the honor of introducing so 
advantageoasly to the -Christian public,'' — and who really seems not to be 
conscious in what language the Old and New Testaments were written, tmless it 
was the old Irish ; — and dierefore, he blunders out his taunts, incessantly '' against 
the Greek and Hebrew of the Holy Ghost, in the inspired volumes," — these same 
Tridentine fathers actually preferred the Latin version of the Bible, to the inspired 
originals of the Greek and Hebrew. 

These fathers appointed a committee to revise and correct tliis same version, which 
they had pronounced inspired ! But, in as much as this thing displeased the pope, it 
was dehvered over into his care. It passed through no less than three popes' hands. 
Sixtus V. had it published as the only pure and perfect Vulgate. He issued a Bull, 
''enjoining its universal reception; and threatening with no less than perdition, the 
man who should make the slightest alterations."' And, though issued by the Infallible, 
in the plentitude of his knowledge and power, it had not been long before the pubhc, 
before it was foimd to abound with damnable errors! Hence it was quickly called in. 
Clement VIII., not having the fear of the Bull of Sixtus before his eyes, did actually 
make very many alterations ! His new edition he published in A. D. 1592 ; and hke 
a good pope, he proped and barricaded this new, and a second time, perfect edition, by 
a s i milar Bull, pronouncing it now to be immaculate, and tlie only Vulgate ! And, 
in the plenitude of infallible power, he prohibited any alterations to be made in it, by 
anybody, on pains of the most terrible anathemas! But behold, the very next year, 
namely, 1593, a new, corrected, and altered edition was issued; and pronoimced to 
be more perfect then his former most perfect edition ! 

Now, all these phenomena are easily accounted for. It was not for want of scholar- 
ship to translate Hebrew and Greek into Latin. No; the real insuperable difficulty- 
lay in getting something hke a translation, simply with a \dew to lend countenance to 
the new Roman system of doctrine, and rituals, which had no place, nor name, nor recog- 
nititai in all the word of God ! ( 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 71 

ISfow, gentlemen, in your laudatory zeal for the Vulgate, I call on you publicly, to 
say, whichof these *' infallibly accurate," and "contradictory" versions you adhere 
to. Dr. James in his book, " BellumPapale," has set down two thousand variatioiui 
between the Sixtine, and the Clementine editions of your Vulgate ! I have now before 
me a large selection, in which the first pope's version leaves out whole verses which 
the last pope's version has! Again, the Clementine has omitted entire clauses which 
the Sixtine has inserted. I have, before me, a list of "manifest contradictions," 
between the two : with many other remarkable differences. Now, gentlemen, to which 
of these " only perfect copies," of these equally " infallible," and equally contradictory 
popes, do you yield your conscience and faith ? The call is made on you to declare this 
in good faith. We know that you cannot. We know that you have manifested an 
utter want of information on this whole subject. In your Letter III. you say, — " You, 
[Dr. B.] ought to know that the Vulgate version was made when the best and purest 
copies of the Hebrew, Chaldaic, Greek and Latin, together with the Polyglots of Ori- 
gen were to be had : that this version has been constantly in the hands of the Western 
church, in all its extent, for 15 centuries." I profess it is impossible to quote, even 
from your own letters, gentlemen, another sentence containing more wilful and wicked 
misrepresentations than these : or one exhibiting more profound ignorance of the 
history of your Vulgate ! You unblushingly hold up the idea that your Vulgate is now 
precisely what Jerome left it ! And you conceal the endless variations and innovations 
that have been made on Jerome's version, by the Sixtine and Clementine labours ! ! 
I beg leave merely for want of room, to refer to Home, vol. ii. p. p. 200. 201 : for a 
comparative view of these variations : and " manifest contradictions," beween the two 
popes' editions of your Vulgate. As for the true version of Jerome, it is of great value. 

The Doaay Bible, now before the public, exhibits the unhallowed liberties taken by 
unprincipled men, with the word of God. For instance, in the second commandment 
your Douay renders the first clause, " thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 
thing" instead of " image :" And the phrase "thou shalt not bow down thyself to 
them," you corruptly render "thou shalt not adore them." In the New Testament 
you render nEravoure " do penance;" whereas it never meant on classic, or Bible page, 
any thing else than this, — " be ye changed in your minds by repentance," or "re- 
pent ye." In violation of all chronology, you convert John the Baptist, and St Peter 
into heretical Roman priests, and make them preach the modern cant of, — " Do 
penance; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;" and again, " do penance and be 
baptized." Do penance, verily ! A thing this is, which John and Peter never 
heard of, and never conceived of, in their pure evangelical minds ! 

Moreover, this same Douay Vulgate converts the apostle Paul's solemn warning 
in Colosians ii. 18, against the idolatrous worship of angels, into an impenetrable 
mysticism of language; or else a real exhortation to be "voluntary in humility, 
and the religion" or worship " of angels !" And what fills every devout chrisiiaa 
with utter amazement, your Vulgate converts the good old patriarch Jacob into a 
drivelling Roman idolator, in his last moments. Will the public believe me, when 
I assure them that the Roman Douay Bible, lately published in New York, 
renders Hebrews xi. 21, in the following manner — "JACOB ADORKD THE 
TOP OF HIS STAFF !" Therefore I repeat what I formerly asserttMl, that the 
Vulgate, as it now is, is one of the worst and most mischi<wous versions of the 
Bible ! And it is a base and immoral hterary imposition on tlio public, to call 
^our Vulgate the version of Jerome ! 



72 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

I ought here to notice your injurious reflections on the Hebrew and Greek origi- 
nals in Letter III. — "These have been, during many ages in the hands of wander- 
ing Jews, &c. ; and, therefore, you cannot possibly answer for the changes they 
have undergone: and you thence recommend "deep silence on this point." Hers 
you gravely assume the supposition that the wandering Jews and oppressed Asiatict 
have been carrying all the Hebrew and Greek originals with them : that the christ- 
ian churches in Asia, in Africa, and Europe had no copies i Does this require any 
sober reply ? Does not every scholar know that Jews and christians, possessing each, 
many ancient copies, have been anxiously watching each other. And the immens* 
labours of Dr. Kennicot, in his splendid Hebrew Bible, and those of M. De Rossi, of 
Parma, have fully " ascertained the integrity of the sacred Hebrew text." Not one 
item touching " doctrines, moral precepts, and historical relations," is injured, far 
less invalidated by the Variae Lectiones. And to give some idea of the pains taken 
by these Hebrew scholars, Kennicot has given a catalogue of a hundred Hebrew 
manuscripts in the libraries of Oxford, Cambridge, and the British Museum. And 
M- de Rossi collated 479 Hebrew manuscripts ; and 288 printed editions I And, 
finaJly, I shall quote in reply to you, the words of Jerome Lib. 3. com. in 
Esaiam : — " Si quis dixerit, <Scc. If any one shall say that the Hebrew books 
were afterwards corrupted by the Jews ; let him hear Origen what he answers 
in the 8th volume of his explanations of Esay, &c." Again, — " But if they say 
that the Hebrews falsified them after the coming of Christ and the preaching of 
the apostles, I cannot hold from laughter that our Sa\dor and his apostles 
ehould so cite testimonies of scripture, as the Jews would afterwards deprave them, 
&c." See also Bishop Hall, p. 589. And the famous saying of Reuchline, and 
Jerome advers. Helvidium., ought to be well known to you, — " The Hebrews drink 
of the well head : the Greeks of the stream ; and the Latins of the puddle !" 

I remember that, in one of our Protestant debates, Dr. Power raised his hand 
toward heaven, and made an awful appeal to God, that he and his clerical friends 
did earnestly encourage his people, the laity, to read the holy scriptures ; that is. 
in the English language ! Now, gentlemen, will you affirm that THERE IS ANY 
ONE VERSION OF THE BIBLE IN ENGLISH, TH_\T IS AUTHORIZED 
BY THE POPE, OR THE CHURCH? I defy you to answer in the affirma- 
tive ! And, if not, where was Dr. Powder's faith, and honor, in that heaven daring 
appeal ! 

V. You have not the unanimous consent of the Fathers to your novel rule : on the 
contrar^s the best and greatest of them are decidedly against you, and in favor of 
our Protestant rule. This is a matter of historical fact. 

Augustine says; — " The city of God detests doubts, as the madness of the Aca- 
demicians. For she believes the sacred scriptures both of the Old and New Tes- 
tament, which we call canonical ; whence our faith is derived, whereby the just 
lives; and by means of which we walk without wavering." Civ. Dei. lib. 19. c. 
18, vol. 7, Paris Edit, of 1685. 

Again: — "Who is ignorant that the canonical scriptures of tlie Old and New 
Testament are contained within certain hmits ; and that it is to be preferred to all 
the subsequent wTitings of bishops ; so that no one can doubt, or dispute concerning 
it, whether whatsoever is -wTitten in it, be true and right." On Baptism against the 
Donatists, Lib. 2. c. 3. vol. 9. 

Again: — "In things which are openly set forth in the scriptures, those things are 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 73 

to be found which comprise faith and moral conduct." On Chr. Doctr. Lib. 2. c. 9. 
vol. 3. 

Again : — " There are undoubtedly books of the Lord, whose authority both of us 
acknowledge, which we mutually believe and obey. Here let us seek the church ; 
here let us discuss our doctrines, &c." " I will not have the holy church proved by 
human documents, but by divine oracles." Tom. 9. p. 341. 

Again: — "Read these things to us from the law, the prophets, the Psalms, the 
gospels, apostolical writings ; read, and we v/ill believe." Do. cap. 6. 

Again in his Tract 2. in Epist. Johan., he says, — " Against treacherous errors? 
God would place our strength in the scriptures ; against which none that would, any 
way, seem a christian, dares to speak." I beg the particular attention of you all, 
gentlemen, to these last words of one of your own saints ! And, as my simile of the 
*' carrier," wasdeemed by you impious, learn if you please whence I had it. Augustine 
on Ps. Ivi. Vol. 4. p. 534, says, — "We produce books from our enemies ; and con- 
found others of our foes. In what opprobrium, therefore, are the Jews ? The Jew 
carries the book whence the christian draws his faith. These have been our librarians.^* 
" These Jews appear from the holy scriptures which they carry, as does the face of a 
mirror, &.c." 

Again : — " Whether the Donatists hold the church, non nisi divinarum, &c. let 
them only show by the canonical books of scripture. For neither do we say they 
should believe us, that we are in the church of God, because Optatus or Ambrose 
had commended this church unto us, which we now hold ; or because it is acknow- 
ledged by the councils of our fellow teachers : or because so great miracles are done 
in it : it is not, therefore, manifested to be true, and catholic. But it is the will of 
Christ that his disciples should be conjirmed by the testimony of the law and prophets* 
These are the rules of our cause : these are the foundations : these are the confirma- 
tions." Aug. in Psalm 69. Bishop Hall, p. 592, folio. 

I beg one quotation more to show this father's views of the plenitude of scripture : 
** John testifies that Christ hath said, and did many things that are not written. Bid 
those things ivere selected to be ivritten ivhich seemed to suffice for the salvation ofbt- 
lieversy In John. Tract. 49, vol. iii. 619. 

Jerome thus writes : — " The church of Christ, who has churches in the whole 
world, is united by the unity of the Spirit; and has the cities of the law, the prophets, 
and the gospel, and the apostles : she has not gone forth from her boundaries, id est 
&c. that is, from the holy scriptures.'^ Tom. 5. p. 334, Paris Edit., of 1602. Again : 
— "But the word of God smiteth the other things, which they spontaneously discover, 
and feign as it ivere, by an apostolical authority, ivithout the authority and testimony 
of scripture.^' Comment, in Hag. c. 1 Tom. 5. p. 506. This testimon}'' of Jerome 
strikes your popish rule dead ! Again : — " The Lord will speak in the scriptures of 
the people : in the holy scriptures ; which are read to the people with the intent that 
all may understand it." " As the Apostles wrote, so also the Lord hath spoken ; — 
that is, by the gospels; not in order that a few, but tliat all may understand." " The 
chiefs of the church, and the chiefs of Christ did not write to a few but to tlio whole 
people. And see what he says of the princes, that is, of the apostles, and tlie evan- 
gelists who were in her. He says who ivere, not are, so that, tviih the exception of the 
apostles, whatsoever should aftenvards be said, should be cut off, and should henceforth 
have no authority.'^ Jerome, Tom. vii. p. 259, Paris Edit. 1602. 

8 



74 ROMAIC CATHOLIC CON TROVERST. 

In Tom. iii. lib. 24 ; and in Tom. ix. p. 186., Jerome mentions the books of tiff 
apocrypha : and declares them not of the canon : and " not to be brought forward for 
the confirmation of faith." 

Chrtsostom, another of your saints, is decidedly pitted against yonr popery. And 
will any intelligent Roman cathohc prefer the extravagance of modern priests to St. 
Chn,'sostom? "I alwaj^s exhort," said he, "and will never cease to exhort yon, 
that you will not only attend to the things spoken to you here, but when you are at 
home, you continually busy yourselves in reading the holy scriptures ; which pra«- 
tice also I have not ceased to drive into them which come privily to me." Homil. iii. 
on Lazar. 

Again : — " Sayest thou, O man, it is not for thee to turn over the scriptures, who 
art distracted with cares? Nay, it is for thee, more than for them, &c." Thi« 
great preacher then goes on to answer the people's objections that they could not well 
■understand the Bible. Now, behold how much the tables are turned by the modem 
innovations of popery : " The spirit of God has so dispensed this word, that publi- 
cans, fishers, tent-makers, shepherds, goat herds, (aipolous) and even idiotai, the 
most illiterate men, may be saved by these books." Homil. in Genes. 29. And I 
shall add out of his Homily ninth on Colossians : "Hear I beseech you all ye 
secular men ; provide for yourselves Bibles, which are the medicines for the soul : at 
least get the New Testament." Again: — " All things are intelligible and straight ia 
the divine scripture : all things that are necessary, are clear." Hom. iii. on 2 Thes. 
ii. Again: — "Ignorance of the scriptures is the cause of all evils." Hom. ix. on 
Colos. iii. And finally: — "The knowledge of the holy Bible is a powerful defence 
against sin: while an ignorance of them is a deep precipice, a profound gulph! It 
is a great betraying of salvation to know nothing of the divine law : it is this igno- 
rance which has given birth to heresies ! They have occasioned the corruption of 
inorals !" Third Serm. on Lazar. 

I have copied thus fully from this great and beautiful Greek writer ; because padie 
Le^■ins seemed to insinuate my ignorance of him : and boasted rather unseasonably 
of his own acquaintance with him I Docs padre Levins read Greek ? It is different 
from Irish, somewhat! 

Athanasius thus writes; — "If ye are disciples of the gospel, speak not unright- 
eously against God : but walk in the things that are written. But if you will speak 
any tbing besides that which is written, why do ^^ou contend against us, who are de- 
termined neither to hear, nor to speak any thing but that which is written ? The 
Lord himself says, if ye continue in my word, ye are truly free !" On the Incam. of 
Christ, Paris Edit, of 1627. 

Once more : — " For the holy and divi7iely inspired scriptures are of themselves suf- 
jicient for the discovery of truth.'' Speech against the Gent. Paris Edit. And per- 
mit me to add that this father who flourished from A. D. 335—340, has given us a 
list of the canonical books ; and a list of the books not inspired, viz. the apocrypha. 
See his Synops. of the holy Script. Paris Edit, of 1627. This list accords entirely 
with ours. 

Tertullian says, "I adore the plenitude of the scriptures." And in his book 
against Hermogenes, he says, " Let this man's school show that it is in the scriptures : 
if it is not in the scriptures, let him fear the curse directed against those who add or 
diminish." See his Advers. Hermog. Paris Edit, of 1675, p. 241. I put it to every 
discreet la^inan, if our priests v.dll honor and obey this father, in these words ! 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 75 

la a word, I am prepared to prove, by any amount of quotations, that the Greek 
and Latin fathers of the first five centuries, held to the very letter of the following 
words of Augustine : " Sancta scriptura nostras doctrinse regalum figit." " The holy 
scriptures determine or fix the rule of our doctrine". Or with St. Gregory, the pope, 
" In this volume (the Bible,) are written down all that can instruct us." Horn. 9. in 
Ezek. ; and in the most accurate conception of St. Chrysostom, — " The canon 
ceases to be the canon, if any thing is added, or taken away from it." Hom. 12, ofi 
«h. iii. of Philippians : and in the decisive works of Basil : " It is right and necee- 
»ary that every one should learn that which is useful, from the holy scriptures ; both 
for the purpose of furnishing the mind with greater piety, and also that they may not 
he accustomed to human traditions.'''' Tom. 2 p. 449. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1722. 

And here I deem it not inappropriate to introduce the testimony of your own Bel- 
larmine, De Verbo Dei Lib. i. cap. 2. Sacra scriptura &c. — " Sacred scripture k 
the most certain rule of faith." And again: — "At sacris scripturis, &c. Bat no- 
thing is better known, nothing more sacred than the holy scriptures, which are con- 
tained in the prophetical and apostolical writings: so that he who refuses to believ* 
in them," namely, as "the most certain rule of faith," — " is the most foolish being" — 
the most consummate of fools, — stultisimum. For that they are most perfectly known, 
the christian world is witness ; and the consent of all nations, among whom for ma- 
ny ages, their supreme authority, summum auctoritatem, has been admitted ; and 
they are moreover most certain, and most true, containing no hmnan inventions^ hut 
the divine oracles^ Lib. i. c. 2. 

We are now prepared, gentlemen, for our argument. Whatever, -with you, has not 
the unanimous consent of the fathers, cannot be a doctrine of j^our church. But, here 
we have demonstrated the historical fact, that you have not only not the unanimous 
consent, — but it is entirely, and most manifestly against you, and in our favor. 
Hence, on your own principles, you must admit that the holy scriptures alone are 
the rule of faith. And your pretended infallible rule, is condemned by the holy 
scriptures, and by the fathers. 

VI. In you Letter III., you make Augustine affirm, that Marcellinus was not an 
idolater ; that this " slander was raised by the Donatists." In reply I beg leave to 
say that you ought to know more accurately the sentiments of your own writers. 
Your own Pope iEncas Sylvius, Pius II., says: "We might adduce many exampleg 
of Romish pontiffs, if our time permitted us, who were either heretics, or stained with 
other vices. Nor does it escape us that Marcellinus offered incense to idols; and that 
another pope which is worse and more horrible, was raised to the popedom by the 
arts of the devil !" You will find these words in his Comment on the Acts of the 
Council of Basil, p. 9; Finch p. 110. 

VII. In Letter III., you also venture to represent "Holy Mother" saying that "no 
enlightened son of mine ever taught the doctrine that infallibility was lodged in th« 
pope alone." Here is another instance of the most reckless disregard of truth. You 
do certainly admit Bellarminc to be an "enlightened son;" at any rate, in the same 
letter, you make "Holy Mother" call him "my faithful son!" Now let me direct 
your eyes to Bellarmine De Con. Auct. Lib. ii. cap. 17. " The supreme pontiff 
ifi simply and absolutely above the churcli universal, and above a general council ; so 
tliat he acknowledges no jurisdiction on earth above himself," Arc. Again: "Se- 
cundo : probatur," &c. Secondly, it is proved by an argument from scripture. For 
&11 the names, which in the scripture are applied to Christ, proving him to be above 



76 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

the church, are in hke manner applied to the pope : as, first; Christ is pater familiaSf 
the head of the family: so is the pontiff: he is pater familias; loco Christi, in the 
place of Christ!" I do not know, gentlemen, ivhat your bishop may think of this 
misrepresentation, and unprincipled disregard of truth and honesty : or whether six 
months penance, by flagellation, and hair cloth would not be deemed too little ! But, 
we Protestants think that such flagrant crimes cannot be washed away, but by year3 
of deep repentance through the Redeemer's blood ! 

VIII. The Jesuits have been in the habit of opposing the Bible rule of faith by an 
argument taken from the abuse of it by the different sectaries. My opponents, and 
Mr. Hughes also copy it out of Mumford; and select " the Arian Cobler" into whose 
lips they put many possible objections ; and profess, finally, that his opponent cannot 
defend the Bible doctrines against him. It is a singular circumstance that the infi- 
dels of France employed this silly form of argument against Christianity. Volney has 
it, at full length, in his "Ruins," Lond. Edit. Chap. 21. He introduces the Jews, 
tiie Roman Catholics, the Lutherans, the Mohammedans, and the Pagans, into the 
presence of the French Director3^ Into the lips of the christians, he puts speeches, 
•which exhibit the quintescence of nonsense and absurdity ; and from the abuse of a 
good and holy thing by bad men, Volney exactly as you do, turns all religion into 
ridicule. This is matched only by the priests' case of the "Arian Cobler," into 
whose lips the greatest absurdities are put by them. And while all his objections 
might be easily refuted by any of our sabbath scholars, who are well taught the usual 
texts to prove our Lord's supreme deity, the priests quote his abuse, as arguments 
against our Bible rule. Most unquestionably that is a bad cause which resorts to the 
logic of reasoning against a good thing, from the abuses of it by the follies of men : 
and blesses the deist, in order to hurt the Protestant. 

IX. The doctrine of intention as held by your church, I did fairly state in my 
argument against you. You make the efficacy of all your sacraments to depend on 
the priest's intention to make them what the church intends them to be. Thus, 
unless the Bisiiop had the intention in his soul and conscience, to ordain you, and 
make you, bona fide, the priests of the church, — then jou are not ordained. This is 
the solemn doctrine of Trent, backed by anathemas! But you cannot prove his 
intention ; and no mortal can. Hence, you have no evidence, under heaven, that 
you are true priests. x\nd if you claim the office, and administer at the altar, with- 
out true ordination ; you expose yourselves to eternal damnation ! And how did 
you, gentlemen, reply to this, in Letter v. ? By a marvellous process, verily ! You 
assumed without an attempt at proof, that Protestants held also this absurd and impi- 
ous doctrine : and then very gravely turned on me, and asked how I knew when I 
had the intention! This is supremely ridiculous, that learned priests, professedly 
opposing Protestants, should be so profoundly ignorant of our doctrine ! Sirs, we 
reject your doctrine of intention with abhorrence ; as one of the prominent marks 
of John's Apocalyptic Beast! And we reiterate our argument: and put you to 
prove the Bishop's intention, or your ordination. You never can prove your ordina- 
tion ! You can never have faith in your own priesthood ! You never can have a 
moment's freedom from the justest doubts that you may be in mortal sin ! You can 
never find repose, by a thousand masses, from the alarming uncertainty, that in a few- 
hours, you may be in the horrors of perdition ! Deplorable result of practical popery ! 

In your last two letters you have not succeeded in bringing forward one single new 
idea, in the way of defensive, or offensive operations ! And what has struck all our 



aOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 77 

readers, you have not replied to, nor even noticed, one of the ten arguments brought 
against your novel rule of faith ! This silence being the full admission of discomfi- 
ture, I shall now leave the rule of faith, and go forward into the chambers of your 
*^Holy Mother's" imagery, — which will be seen to set at defiance, in sober truth, all 
that the holy Ezekiel, in vision, beheld in olden times of the wicked Jews ! 

This closes the first part of my letters. We have succeeded, we believe, in esta- 
blishing the fact by evidence of a painful nature, namely, their own admissions and 
arguments, that the Romish priests are decidedly deists from principle! I have rea- 
»dh to believe that there is not a doubt of this left on the minds of the religious com- 
munity. And one of the strongest confirmations is this, every infidel has hailed 
the priest's letters as uncompromising auxiliaries to their cause, and bitter warfare 
against our Lord Jesus Christ! ! This is a matter of public notoriety. 

We have succeeded, also, we trust, in establishing this fact, that the first principle 
held by the Roman catholic church takes away from its members, the sacred rights of 
ihinJcing, and reasoning, and acting according to their own consciences : that, in fact, 
the priest permits no exercise of conscience : no rights of private judgment whatever, 
on matters of religion ! ! The Roman priests wield a system which converts man 
into a mere mechanical engine, in order that he may think, and move, and act, and 
dispose of his soul, body, spirit, and property, just as the holy priests prescribe. No 
Roman Dictator ever wielded a more tyranical and terrific power, in pagan empire, 
than that of our priests ! ! 

And finally, we have shown, even at this stage of our argument, that the Roman 
catholic church, — I mean not the many gallant and patriotic men in her, — but her 
system of religion, is a necessary and deadly enemy to all liberty, — personal and 7ia~ 
ti&nal ; to all liberty, civil and religious ! ! 

I am, Gentlemen, Yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER VIL 

It opens with a discussion on Dr. B.'s " gnawing and bitter conviction of defeat," — and 
his ''writhing under the bitterness of discomfiture." '* The inspired of tJie M. D. Church 
has exhausted his argument." " His rule of faith and calvinistic creed are in our clutch .'" 

They proceed to go over all of Dr. B.'s letters, one by one, and lament his hopeless fail- 
ure, in characteristic slang. 

"Aware of the torture of mind you now experience from defeat, we will, in charity, as;- 
cribe the irritability of your temper to the consciousness of failure in establishing vour rule 
of faith." 

"To affix a stigma on Nuns and Jesuits, you and your ^virtuous ladies' sanctioned the 
gross and polluting fiction — ' Lorette.' " 

" Yes, whether in the pulpit or the street; whether interpreting the ' Hebrew and Greek 
of the Holy Ghost;' whether directing your 'virtuous ladies' by the gaslight of your interior 
spirit to the realms of Elysium, or manufacturing, ))y patent right, chains, and sulphur, and 
anathema for your polemic antagonists, you will be hailed the Preacher who ap{)rovcd an 
obscene slander for the instruction of their sons and daughters." 

" Docs it make your heart the domicile of the interior spirit ? Does it not [>rovo your uiti- 
macy with the 'Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost?' " 

" You inform 'your (Vicuulsyou were but skirmishing.' This was a strange av(nval from 
a Religionist, who professes such zealotry of adhesion to tiio 'Hebrew and Greek of tiio 
Holy Gliost'/' " 

8* 



78 BfOHAF CATHOLIC C05TR0VEIIST. 



*• There is no proof , no form of proof; and, yet, the logical Preacher imagined he had de^ 
monstrated the Bible to be the word of God f 

'' Therefore he has not yet demonstrated that the Bible is the Word of God : therefore, he 
has not yet affixed a rational character to his Rule of Faith : therefore, in the selection of 
his religion he is not governed by discretion : therefore, his faith is mere human opinion — 
therefore, he has no foundation on which to rest bis hope of eternal salvation ! I !" 

•' What think you now. inspired Preacher, of your rule of faith ? ^Miat think vou of 
' our forms of reason !' ' Is not your rule,' — that is, the holy scriptures. — ' torn np and scat- 
tered to the winds ? Is it not,' — that is. God"s holy scriptures. — • like the bubble blown by 
the child in the sport of inlancy. flimsy, and hollow ? Is it not,' — that is. the Holy Spirit 
speaking in God's word. — • a shell around vacuity ; but ^Tthout a tincture of the rainbow 
colouring, which gladdens the inlant's sight V " 

[Note. One is forcibly reminded of the similar impious boastings of Thomms Paint, diat 
'•^e had. also, annihilated the holy scriptures I] 

'•You have not yet proved the Bible to be the Word of God. and the Bible, by the very 
terms of your rule of faith, must be the actual foundation of ever}- argument you logically 
should use." 

•' Excellent, — worthy of the gigantic Erudite in the ' Hebrev, ar.d Greek of the Holy 
Ghost.' " 

•• His intellect is not manufactured from penetrable stuff: — it is as guiltless of tliought and 
argument at the present hour, as when it exulted in the gasconade of '•CHALLENGE'^ 
against his opponents." 

^ To chaof e poor Browulee, do not hope ; 

Tis vain to shave an A?islace, 

And onlv labor to mi-^piace. 

And loss of words, mdeed, as well as soap." 

" \o"ar creed is the dropsied offspring of mere human opinion. — it is an emanation from 
the passions of earth, — it is too gross to ascend above earth's exhalations, — ^it cannot elevate 
human hope to the Seraph's abode. — ^it cannot console on earth, it cannot say I have a rest- 
ing place in Heaven I — Defeat, discomfiture, and rout, this is a bitter and gnawing convic- 
tion. Degraded, dishonored, unpitied I How vanquished gasconade will fret its heart in 
sullenness ! How misery will ruminate over the indiscretion of CHALLENGE, and yearn 
for the reputation lost and the pinnacle from which it fell ! A GREAT MAN has fallen in 
Israel I Ye choristers of the 3Iiddle Dutch Church muffle your tones of joy. • the inspired 
Writer of Zion. and he that was clothed in the best gold. — how is he esteemed as an earthen 
vessel !' " 

'• In pointing out some of the apparently contradictory texts of the Bible, we were con- 
vinced that Dr. Brownlee believed his rule of taith to be perfectly consistent, and that his 
proofs would be given in all the fulness of an erudite in the * Hebrew and Greek of the 
Holy Ghost.' We have not been disappointed. This theologue. whose ' only rule of 
Faith is the trrittin vcord of God^ and judge of controversy, the Holy Ghost speaking to us in it* 
tells us that this rule, is not contradictory, because Bochart, Whitby. Lightfoot, Jaha 
and Bug. teli him there is no contradiction to be found in the passages we have quoted. 
Doctor Brownlee believes that there are no realiv contradictor^- passages in the scriptures,, 
his rule of faith." 

'' We now call on the Preacher of the Middle Dutch Church, to produce one passage of 
holy writ, to prove, that there is no contradiction in the places to which we have referred.'" 

'■ But, hoic can you refer the people to the scriptures for the belief of those points of chris- 
tian faith, which are not found in the scriptures, such as the canonicity, the integrity, and 
inspiration of the books of scriptures ?" 

'• But is it not the extreme of folly in one, whose only rule of faith is the Bible, thus to 
declaim infaror of tradition ?" 

*■ Why, Rev. Sir, the veriest old crone amonof vour virtuous ladies, will see that this con- 
ftdusion is not contained in the premises, and that the inveterate habit of draw-ing such con- 



ROMAN CATHOLIC C0NTR0VER3T. 79 

elusions, argues a 'derangement of the moral faculty.' One thing is certain, the Holy 
Ghost must consider you, no extraordinary genius, when after a course of some thirty or 
forty years in his school, you display such ignorance of elementary principles." 

'' Strange, Rev. Sir, that YOUR ONLY JUDGE OF CONTROVERSY, THE HOLY 
GHOST, SPEAKING TO YOU IN THE SCRIPTURES does not decide this Contro- 
versy between you." 

" Your attacks on the Vulgate you have borrowed from Pope's fourth speech in the dis- 
cussion witli McGuire. The Catholic champion earnestly called on the biblical crusader 
to compare the Sixtine and Clementine editions of the Bible, with the Vulgate of St. Je- 
rome, and to point out any substantial difference, if any could be found. This he did not do, 
and for a very obvious reason. Yet after this failure on the part of Mr. Pope, you have the 
eiFrontery to invoke ' all the learned to judge between us,' and you pronounce our quota- 
tions from approving Protestants as deceptions and absolutely to no purpose." 

" Protestants ought to pause before they institute a comparison between their English 
translation of the Bible, and our Do way translation. They are the children of the Bible, 
and of the most abominably corrupted Bible, that ever appeared. We make no random 
assertions. Mark our proofs and weigh them well. Read the famous Broughton's adver- 
tisement of Corruption to Loi-ds of the Council in the year 1604, and recollect that he was 
a Puritan." 

"In the Hampton Court Conference, pag. 45, 46, 47, all the English Bibles are pronoun- 
ced infamous translations. For the history of these translations, we refer to Bishop 
Pre ty man." 

" For the corruptions' that exist even in all the late editions of the English Protestant 
Bible, we refer to the pamphlet of Mr. Ciirtis on this subject. As you profess intimacy 
with the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost,' and are interested in the Protestant 
translations of the Bible, you, of course, have seen the pamphlet of Curtis, a dissenting 
minister, addressed to the present Protestant Bishop of London. In this pamphlet Curtis 
states, as the result of a laborious examination of a great number of Bibles, that, in the 
modern editions, he has detected no less than 2931 intentional departures from King Jame's 
Bible, in seven books, or only o. fourth part of the canon of the scriptures ! On the inten- 
tional departures from what is termed in England, the authorised version of the scriptures, 
we refer you to the averments made by several highly respectable witnesses before the se- 
lect Committee of the House of Commons on King's Printers' Patents. Fx'om this examin- 
ation and the pamphlet of the Rev. Mr. Curtis, you will obtain knowledge of which you are 
now ignorant, though you exult in your Protestant education." 

** Let it suffice for the present, that the Pope is convinced, from the report of the Bishops 
in the countries where the English language is commonly spoken, that the Doway transla- 
tion and the different editions of it, are all free from substantial error. This is all that the 
discipline of our church requires with regard to the different translations from the Vulgate — 
and it is in virtue of this discipline, that Doctor Power did assert, that Roman Catholics 
were not prevented by their Pastors from reading the Bible in tlie Vulgar tongue." 

"A correct edition of the fathers, does not exist, says Dr. B. : for he says, the monks of 
the dark ages corrupted them. Yet in opposition to this positive assertion, he quotes from 
the fathers, corrupted by the monks, because he thinks it supports his cause ! He says, 
*' produce Si genuine copy and I will receive their pages with profound veneration!" Yet, 
to supi)ort his rule of failh, and wanting an editio cxpurgata, he props his creed on quota- 
tions from the Fathers ! Is there in the records of controversial history so striking an ex- 
ample of inconsistency — such direct contradiction?" 

" In the seventh section of your Hydra Epistle, you accuse us of a ' reckless disregard of 
truth,' for saying that 'no divine of the church of Rome ever taught that infallibility was 
lodged in the Pope alone.' We do not avoid the weight of this assertion. But how do you 
convict us of falsehood 1 By an argument at once the most stupid and absurd. Bellarmine 
is a son of the church ; but Bellarmine says tlmt the Pope is above u general couuciK 



80 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

Therefore, Bellarmine believed that infallibility resides in the Pope alone. Now, Sir, Bel- 
larmine believed that Christ was above the Apostles. Therefore, according to you, Bellar- 
mine believed that infallibility was confined to Christ alone, that the Apostles were not in- 
fallible. Dear Doctor we despair of ever making a logician of you." 
Then follows the often repeated quotations out of Hooker, Field, &c. 



At this stage of the discussion, serious diflSculties, it was understood, had occurred among 
the priests. Dr. Varela had already refused to go with his associates: and now Dr. P., it 
was whispered, was dissatisfied. My Letter VIII. in reply to the priests' Letter VII., was, 
by their influence, kept up, and withheld from the public, for some time. And it was not 
until they and their editor were notified, that, unless they published it forthwith, it should 
certainly appear in other papers, that it was at length, reluctantly printed. Meantime the 
following reply was brought forward to Dr. Varela's occasional Letters. 



TO THE REV, DR. VARELA. 

"Magna est Veritas, atque presvalebit !" 

Great is truth, and it shall prevail ! — An old Protestant maxim. 

My Reverend Friend — I give your great credit for you honesty and taste, in not 
permitting the priests to use your name, in the revolting and scandalous letters which 
ihey inflict on tlie public feelings : their infidel assaults on the holy scriptures ; and 
their illiterate and rude taunts on " the original Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost." 
Now, sir, proceed a little farther, according to the correct instinct of taste ; and re- 
nounce the vice of slandering the immortal authors of the " ever blessed Reformation," 
and of perverting the pages of the elegant and classical Calvin. Permit me briefly 
to reply to your two letters : and, here, let me say that I shall not follow you on any 
of the points discussed in our regular series- I reserve your remarks on purgatory 
and the mass, until I shall reach them in proper order. 

1. My friend Varela sa3's, he produced a text from St. Ambrose to show that he 
taught the invocation of the saints. Now, I affirm that no honest man can read Am- 
brose on the first chapter of Romans, and then venture to tell the public that he ap- 
l^roved the invocation of saints. No, Sir, you know, if you have Ambrose, that he 
wTote against it with great zeal and indignation. Theodoret on Coloss. 2, and Am- 
brose on Rom. 1, having stated the detestable origin of invoking Saints, thus declare 
against it: — "The heathen idolaters to cover the shame of neglecting God, used this 
miserable excuse, that by these (tlieir departed heroes, daimones) tliey might go to 
God; as by officers we go to a king." Now, Sir, hear Ambrose farther: — "Go to, 
is any man so mad, or unmindful of his salvation, as to give the king's honor to an 
officer? And yet these idolaters do not think themselves to be guilty who give the 
honor of the name of God to a creature : and, forsaking the Lord, adore their fellow 
servants, as if there were any thing more that could be reserved to God!" — "To 
procure the favors of God (from whom nothing is hid, he knows the works of all men) 
we need no spokesman, but a devout mind. Suffragatore nan opus est ^c." — You 
quote the words of the church of Sm3-rna to Polycarp, to sustain your prayers to 
the saints, — namely, "We adore God, we venerate tlie martyrs." But these words 
condemn you ; Protestants venerate the saints ; you adore, or pray to them. You even 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 81 

make Jacob '' adore the top of his staff." See Doway Bible, Heb. xi. 21. ; and quote 
him as an example in your idolatry. 

I have thus convicted you, Sir, of misrepresentation ; and you owe a solemn apo- 
logy to St. Ambrose the first time you invoke him ! You charge me with misquoting 
St. Augustine on this same point; and you profess to quote from him the doctrine of 
the invocation of saints and angels. In reply, I assert that Augustine every where 
most solemnly and indignantly rebukes the idolatry of invoking saints, with which 
you criminate his memory ! Just look into his professions, Lib. 1 c. 5, Lib. x. c, 
42, &c. In his book, De Quant. Anim. c. 34, he says: — "In the Catholic Church, 
it is divinely and singularly delivered that no creature is to be worshipped by the soul, 
but the Creator of all things alone." And, in his book De Vera Relig. c. 55, he says : 
"The adoring of men that are dead, should be no part of our religion; because, if 
they lived piously, they will not seek that kind of honor; they are to be honored for 
imitation : not to be adored for religion, or invoked in a religious manner." Now, 
Dr. Varela, the next time you go to invoke your Saint Augustine, I beg you, as an 
honest man, confess to him that you have been most greviously perverting his Vv-ritings ; 
and doing that wickedness, which he has solemnly condemned and reprobated! But, 
you gave an opposite quotation from his pages. Here then it is manifest, either that 
St. Augustine has beenaltered and mutilated by the monks of the dark ages, who tran- 
scribed his works : or that this saint did grossly contradict himself. If so, then you 
have not the unanimous consent of the same father with himself; far l<^ss the unanimous 
consent of all the fathers ! Take it either way, it is fatal to your idolatrous practice of 
invoking the absent spirits of dead men, and dead women ! ! ! 

2. 1 again affirm. Sir, that Romish conversion is simply "a reconciliation to the 
church." Every one accustomed to the style of Roman priests and writers, knows that 
this is invariably the mode of expressing it. And reconciliation to the church, mean- 
ing a nominal union to the Romish church, is the consummation of virtue, and the 
perfection of holiness? And if he only die in the bosom of "Holy Mother," and 
pay the church's dues, let his ignorance be ever so great; or the vices of his life, up 
to his dying hour, ever so many, he is perfectly safe ! Here, as every one sees, the 
Romish church has assumed the very ground of the Jews, "We be Abraham's 
iBced." And because they were his descendants, they held it up as a self evident 
point, that God was under an obligation to save them ! — The Roman Mass is a sub- 
stitute for the true atonement; and hence the only ground of a pinner's hope by jus- 
tification and reconciliation to God, is wholly taken away ! And Belkirmine in Lib. 
iii. De Eccles. cap. 2 and 7. has fairly and honestly expressed the opinion of all Ro- 
man catholic priests of our day. They do not believe in the need of a spiritual 
renovation ; they hold with unblushing assurance, that there is no need of internal 
grace in the members of their church : all they require is only the external rite and 
public profession. And hence they say, in the words of Bellarmine, and the Khem. 
Annot. on John 15. sect. 1. that "wicked men, and even rej)robates, remaining in 
the public profession of the church, are true members of the body of Christ !" 

3. You follow the Romish church in her singular zeal for image worship ; and 
you remind me of my " ignorance in this matter, and of the confusion in my dates." 
There is no mistake, my friend, in the matter. Tlie use and worshij) of images in 
the christian church is a mere novelty. I stated thattlie seventh general council held 
in 754, in which were present tiS'S Fathers, did solemnly condemn the worship 
of! images, and their use iu churches, it is true, tho Roman popes stood out 



32 ROMAi* CATHOLIC CO^TROVERST. 

as usnal, for the use and veneration of them. I am well aware that vonr church 
does not acknowledge this 7th general council of the Greek church. But you hesi- 
tate not to admit the infamous decrees of the idolatrous council of Nice, the second of 
that place. These decrees revived image adoration; and poured worse than Pa^aa 
superstition over the western church. 

There are two things, my good Sir, which have excited my surprise. Why did 
you not state that the council of Frankfort, consisting of 300 bishopss did in 794. 
unanimously condemn the tcorship, and the use of images, and thus overthrow your 
wicked council of Nice ? But what surprises me far more, my good Doctor, is thi»; 
that you could, in your conscience, approve of any decision of that council. Is it 
possible that you can applaud a cotmcil summoned together, and guided, by the atn>- 
cious Irene, who murdered her husband, and then usurped the imperial throne ? Do 
you, then, avow that your images were sustained by the council under the dictation 
of a bloody murderer ? And this is not all. In the West, or Latin church, at th« 
same time, the two popes, Gregorys, kindled the flames of rebellion, and war, against 
their lawful princes ; and spread civil war over Italy and the islands adjacent. And 
in their horrid popish rage for image worship and superstition, they caused the death 
of unnumbered thousands. It ^-as in the eighth century that those ghostly barbari- 
ans on the pontifical throne, spread ruin and havoc, far and wide. And your felloi^ 
priests and you cease not to applaud these bloody idolaters I 

4. You complain that I did not truly represent your church's doctrines on graee. 
And "you produced a text out of the council of Trent" which, you say, removes all 
doubt of its being a caltmany, that "the catholic church denies the work of grace: 
and holds that the sinner is saved purely by human merit.*' That text I find in the 
decrees of the council of Trent. But. though pained to hurt your feelings, I am con- 
strained to tell you. that you have made a scandalous misquotation which perverts 
the sense of these fathers. 

Here is your quotation : — " Eternal life must be preached as a grace mercifully 
promised to the children of God." This is very sound Protesiantism. But it is mere 
mangling of the whole sentence : the whole of it, is as follows: — "Atque ideo &c. 
And therefore to these who work well, and (persevere to the end. and hope in God, 
eternal hfe is to be proposed, (proponenda) both as a grace mercifully promised to the 
children of God. through Jesus Christ, and. also, as the reward to be faithfully ren- 
dered by the promise of himself, to their good works and merit.*' 

Your whole quotation, in the Truth Teller p. 207. Col. 1. is given as if one conti- 
nuous sentence ; whereas it is composed of four garbled extracts I Your second clause 
stands thus . — 

'•Jesus Christ communicates virtue to those who are justified, the same as the 
head does to the members, or the vine to the branches, which virtue alwavs ante- 
cedes, accompanies, and is subsequent to the good works, and without it they could 
not be by any means meritorious." 

This you give as the entire sentence ; whereas you stop in the very middle of it. 
The rest of the pa;^age stands thus : — " it must be believed that the justified are in no 
respect deficient ; but that they may be considered as fully satisfying the di\iae law 
(for the state of this life,) by their own good works, which are wrought in God ; and 
as meriting eternal hfe to be obtained, in due time, if they die in a state of grace." 

In this manner. Dr. Varela, you go on man^line the poor Tridentine Fathers in a 
mercileas way. See C. Trent, S. 6. cap. 16 and Cramp's Text Book p. p. 104 &41i. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTRaTERSY. 83 

*1?he real doctrines issued by the authority of these Fathers, and held by all ortho- 
tlox Roman catholics, are these ; that good works done before conversion, have a 
merit de congruo ; that is, they merit a divine reward from a principle of congruity, 
or fitness, and the free bounty of God : and good works done after justification, do 
truly and properly merit eternal life. And thus they overturn the doctrines of the 
free grace of God ; and the special grace of the Holy Ghost. 

5. You challenge me to produce a single Roman catholic divine who has claimed 
for the pope, or the church, the power of appointing new articles of faith. Have you 
forgotten. Sir, the words of Bellarmine and others, who constitute the pope a "God 
upon earth :" and the pater familias of the church, having the titles, and the place of 
Christ in it? Can you be ignorant that Pope Innocent IH., during the session of tb« 
4th council of the Lateran, did, without consulting any body, publish and enact no 
less than seventy laws, or decrees, by which he not only established the power of the 
popes and clergy, but also imposed "new doctrines, or articles of faith, on the christ- 
ian church." See Mosh. ii. ch. 3, p. 2, and Daille on Confession. Will you deny 
that the Trentine council added twelve articles to the church's creed ? And can you 
seriously dispute, that Leo X. condemned this among the forty-one tenets of Luther^ 
^^that the pope, or church had no power to establish articles of faith." And here, Sir, 
are the words of the bull which you challenge me to produce " Certum est in manu 
Ecclesiae, et papse, prorsus non esse statuere articulas fidei, imo nee leges morum, seu 
bonorum operum." That is, "It is certain that it is not in the povvxr of the church 
or of the pope to constitute or determine articles of faith, nor even laws of morals, or 
good works." This is Luther's tenet which this pope condemned. And the Rhemist 
Annotators speak strongly on the point : " We must believe the church of Rome and 
trust her in all things." On 1 Tim. iii. sect. 9 : Again, "we ought to take our faith 
and all things necessary to salvation from the hands of our superiors." On Acts x. 
sect. 8. And finally, see the bull of Leo X. added to the last council in the Lateran : 
"Ad solam, &c. To the sole authority of the pope does it belong to give a new edi- 
tion of the creed; or a new giving out of the creed belong to him solely." And to 
crown the whole, see Corpus Juris Canon. Dist. 40. and the following declaration in 
Dist. xix. cap. 6. " Inter Canonicas &c. Among the canonical scriptures th© 
(pope's) decretal epistles are to be numbered." These need no comment. Here is 
evidence of the highest order, — namely, your own books! 

6. You write. Sir, with an amazing degree of non chalance, about your admitting 
seven sacraments ; and of our admitting two, as if your will, and mine, by a mere 
choice, were left to settle this. Nay, by way of a most ludicrous blunder, yon 
add: "If I am not greatly mistaken, the Presbyterian church admits of only one 
proper sacrament !" How so, — why, say you, " because they make it only an 
ordinance!" What naivete in this blunder of the true sons of Loyola ! They arc »o 
accustomed to receive the laws, ordinances, and rites simply from "the Lord God, the 
pope," — that they really do not know this elementary truth, that the true churcli — that 
is the Protestant church, receives it as an undoubted article of her faith, that Clirist, 
her only King and Head, ordains all the institutions of his house: that the pope, 
and he of the Koran, have no more power and authority to institute a new statute or 
rite, in ins church, than to add a new world to his dominions ! Hence he has made, 
fixed, and pronounced in the New Testament, every law, and every ordinance, which 
the church is ever to enjoy. And from this divine institution, wc call the holy supper, 
and baptism, ordinances. Our Romish priests have no idea of this; for the pope is 



S4 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

soul, conscience, heart, law, and gospel to them ' While the christian looks up to hii 
God and King in heaven ; the romanists lift their eyes over the hills and seas, to 
Rome ! My dear sir, they take no pains to spare the priestly character : they heap 
proof upon proof that they linger a thousand years behind the light of God's holj 
gospel, in the darkness of the darkest ages ! 

7. I vv^ill once more ansv7er the often repeated question respecting divisions exist- 
ing in the Protestant world, and their causes, whenever you will have the goodnew 
to answer frankly, the following queries : — 

First — ^What is the reason why two equally learned lawyers will differ on a plain 
point of law ? Or, why do you, and Dr. Power, and Mr. Levins so far differ that your 
taste and delicacy will not permit you tp lend your name to their rude and blasphe- 
mous Letters ? 

Second — What has caused the endless divisions in Holy Mother's bosom ?" Your 
*' infallible rule," which as certainly fell down from heaven, as did the image of Diana 
from Jupiter, is firmly believed by all the different sects in your church. Now, why 
do the Jesuits and Janseuists differ, and persecute each other? Why do the Francis- 
cans and Dominicans differ, and quarrel, beyond the powers of the pope and the church 
herself to unite them ? W^hy did you and your bishop quarrel with the priest of 
Brooklyn? Had he no "infallible rule of Holy Mother," to guide him, as well as 
you? 

Third — ^Whether your superior education enables you to apprehend the distinction 
between subjective infallibility, and objective infallibility ? Your colleagues in their 
Letters to me, ventured on the attempt : but it proved a complete abortion ! And in 
order to cover their retreat, and throw, at least, something like a veil over invincible 
ignorance, they actually turned into ridicule, the plain and logical distinction of o6;ec- 
tive and subjective infallibility ! 

We cease, however, to wonder at any thing. The state of education among Romish 
priests is deplorable. Hebrew and Greek, with Biblical criticism form no part of 
their training ! Why, some of them conceive the Latin Vulgate to be really the ori- 
ginal language of the Bible, given by inspiration. Others seem equally as igno- 
rant as the Romish Archbishop of a town in Italy, in the dark ages, who happening to 
find a Bible in some old box in the library ; exclaimed upon reading it, — " / have found 
a singular old book here : I know not ivhat it is, but one thing I see, it makes entirely 
against us!" They imagine that if there be any "original" of the Holy Spirit's 
inspiration, it must be the old Irish tongue ! For, there can be no doubt, say they, 
that the prophets and apostles lived in old Ireland, and vvTote the scriptures there ! ? 
Hence these furious taunts flung at " the Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost." 
The author of them exhibits a burning zeal in support of this Milesian theory-, at all 
risks, and hazard of character ! 

But, Sir, your better education must enable you to apprehend the difference between 
subjective and objective, as apphed to this point in theology. There is an infaUibihty 
objective, in our Protestant rule ; because God speaks to us infaUibly in the Bible. 
But the subjects on which this rule is brought to operate, namely, men, are not infal- 
Kble. Hence, there is no subjective infallibility. That is, the infallible rule of God, 
does not make men, personally, infallible. Hence it is easy to see that under the 
best and most divine rule, men will err ; and hence, they will differ. The fault is in 
men obviously, not in God's word ! 

8. When gi-ave and solemn charges are brought against the pope, and Holy Mo- 



EOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 85 

ttlier^s priesthood, and their spiritual and moral character is thence annihilated : and 
when these charges are fully proved out of your own writers, such as Baronius, Pla- 
tina, ^nd Clemangis, how have you replied ? Why, by throwing the oblivion of si- 
lence over it : or by a quotation from Roscoe containing an eulogium on two or tlirte 
tolerably decent popes ! And this done, you thence piously infer, that because a few 
were decent, and rather more moral than others, therefore they were all good popes, 
and the perfect rule and judge of all truth, human and divine! This is a fair speci- 
men of the precious "dialectics, and logic" of our priests ! 

You had, in reserve, another characteristic mode of replying to our charge of infi- 
delity and profligacy made against popes and priests. The Reformers have been, you 
say, the worst, and most execrable of men; "Luther was a pupil of the Devil;" 
and, " therefore, our wicked Popes were angels, and our polluted Priests, chaste 
saints!" 

Now, admitting that you could induce yourselves to believe the Reformers to be a» 
bad as demons, that does not touch the question. We never constituted one of these 
men, — not even Paul, or Peter, the living rule and judge ! We repeat it, the bible is 

OUR ONLY RULE, AND GOD SPEAKING IN IT, IS THE INFALLIBLE JUDGE. But yOU 

declare the pope, or the church, made up of these base and profligate men, to be the 
living speaking oracle, and judge ! Hence, when we adduced evidence that the 
popes, as your Father Paul says of the Trent Fathers, were — " A camp of incarnate 
demons," and your priests, by your own witnesses, a race of polluted, sensual men 
wallowing in vices, — we did, thereby, annihilate, utterly, and for ever, your Roman, 
catholic rule of faith ! ! It died by the virulence of its own corruption! 

Come, now. Father Varela, open your eyes in candor; read God's holy word; 
retract your errors; embrace the truth; come over to the fold of the only true Shep- 
herd, our Lord Jesus; and I will greet you, in Christ. 

Your affectionate brother, 

W. C. Brownlee. 

P. S. Since writing the above, I perceive that you have charged me with publish- 
ing a falsehood^ in as much as I affirmed that the Trentine Fathers added twelve arti- 
cles to the creed. 

The Trentine Fathers did this by their agent. Pope Pius IV. to whom they left the 
matter merely : as the echo of that council and its head, he published the creed. By 
3iim acting in its name were the additional articles added- I have made one mistake 
which I hasten to rectify. Instead of twelve, he added fourteen new articles to the 
creed ! And I challenge Dr. Varela and all the priests to deny it ! Let any one take 
up Cramp's Text Book: let him look into pope Pius IV.'s creed, in Cramp, p. 450 : 
there he will see the original Latin copy : and in p. 387, he will see the translation. 
Firsts you have the creed, and then attached to that, fourteen new articles, unknown 
to the Apostles, and unknown to the clmrch of Christ in the first six centuries. 

Sir, I have here established another proof, that our Jesuit priests will deny any 
thing, and will assert any thing, even loith the most glaring evidence to the contrary, 
before their eyes ! I can assign no other reason than this : they set Protcstant^s at defi- 
ance ; their unlettered votaries, they know, have no access to these documents, in our 
iiands, and in the priests' hands. And they are satisfied that their victims will iak«^ 
the priests' word against all the evidence that truth can ])our forili. Their siniph: 
votaries have been volunteers in self innnohilion, and have always believed by proxy. 

w. b. B.' 

9 



8d Roman catholic coNTRovERsr. 



A CARD. — TO THE PUBLIC. 



The subscriber owes it to the public respectfully to state, that the foUowLDg Letter 
iras kept back by the Roman catholic paper, a whole week, without any reason, or 
excuse being offered. And he also owes it to himself to state farther, to all who read 
the Roman catholic paper, that, after it was at length given, it appeared in its col- 
umns, so deformed and mangled, by the omission of lines and words, and by errors 
of the grossest nature, that it is next to being unintelligible. 

He takes this occasion also to state, that that catholic paper has from time to time, 
admitted the most indecent and outrageous attacks on Protestant ladies, whom the 
priest ISIt. Thomas C. Levins has seen fit to drag into the present controversy ; and 
yet the editor has been induced to refuse positively to admit a reply from the subscri- 
ber, or from ladies, lo these personal outrages ! 

The little book "■ Lorette, or the history of the daughter of a CayiacUan nun,'* which 
has slung the priests' conscience, and inflicted such acute pain, — was submitted to 
none of my parishioners. No one of the ladies of the 3Iiddle, and North Dutch 
churches ever saw, or even heard of it, while in manuscript. I repeat it distinctly, — 
no one of them was of the number of those judicious and virtuous mothers of fami- 
lies, who took the trouble of reading and recommending it. These were all of the 
Presbyterian church exclusively. This I made known, confidentially, to the priest. 
Yet, in violation of all the decencies and courtesies of life, the priest Mr. Thomas C. 
Levins, has dragged in the ladies of the Middle Dutch church into this controversy : 
and he still continues, under his own signature, and the shocking ^-ulga^ities of 
" Fergus McAlpine," published weekly in the popish newspaper, in violation of every 
principle of honor, — to offer insults to ladies who move in the first circles of New 
York ! 

I deem it, therefore, my duty to hold up this Romish priest, before the fathers, hus- 
bands, and brothers of those ladies, — as the rude ^-iolator of the decencies, and com- 
mon courtesies of society : — as one who has insulted ladies in language, and terms 
which can proceed from no christian, or gentleman ! As one who has added coward- 
ice to these unmanly insults, by employing his priestly influence to prevent all re- 
plies, and exposures from appearing in those columns, where he publishes his outrage- 
ous attacks ! 

The subscriber begs leave to make an appeal to even.' gentleman, and every lady 
in our community, whether this repeated insolence to ladies, on the part of a Romish 
priest, is to be tolerated. He can have no objection that Mr. Levins should heap on 
his head his unmeasured abuses, and sacerdotal vituperations. The subscriber is his 
public and avowed theological opponent ; and he is prepared for it. For it is just as 
natural for a priest of Roman faith to persecute those, whom, in his vulgar and illibe- 
ral views, he is pleased to call '• heretics ;" as it is for liim to breathe ! But, then, 
let him confine the outpourings of the vials of his ghostly wrath, to those, exclusively, 
who war against his unpieties ; and not, with the graceless coward, insult ladies, and 
those who never entered the lists with him I None but the rudest being, that ever 
was trained up in all the heartlessness of Jesuitism, and monastic celibacy, which 
paralyzes every noble, and virtuous, and holy feeling of the human soul, — can per- 
mit himself to insult ladies ! And when, in the calamitous events of providence, such 
outlaws intrude themselves on virtuous and polished society, and rudely violate social 
courtesies, — then, every gentleman, and, most especially, every young man, is bound, 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 87 

promptly to show that there are husbands, and fathers, and brothers to defend their 
wives, their daughters, and sisters, against such brutal assaults of priests ! 

I am, most respectfully, &c. 
W, C. Brownlee, 
May 14, 1833. 



LETTER VIII. 

TO DRS. POWER AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 

*' Upon this rock will I build my church !" — Jesus Christ. 

*' And that rock was Christ." — St. Paul. 

" Other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 

Gentlemen : — Your seventh letter I have carefully perused. You would have saved 
trouble, and been as near your object, had you reprinted the sixth against me, in. 
reply. You have offered, in both, much incense to the spirit of error and heresy. I 
fear he is the presiding genius over all your nocturnal orgies and lucubrations. You 
have renewed your crusade against the holy Bible ; but without advancing one single 
new idea ; or even one semblance of a fresh argument on the point. My ten argu- 
ments against your rule, by which I trust, it has been logically demolished and anni- 
hilated, — have been passed over, unnoticed by you. And, gentlemen, whatever attri- 
butes your enemies deny you, I shall maintain that in this silence, you possess both 
wisdom and cunning. We have also fully established the evidence of the holy scrip' 
tures, by the usual arguments and proofs, briefly given, from internal and from exter- 
nal evidence ; from miracles, prophecy, and historical evidence or tradition. And I 
trust, I have fully exposed your besetting sins touching tradition. It is truly ludi- 
crous to see grave and professedly learned men insisting on it, forever, that tradition 
alone is all the evidence of the Bible's inspiration ; and that tradition belongs solely 
and exclusively, to " Holy Modier" of Rome, verily! You repeat here, again, with 
flolemn trifling, all your deism and twaddle in this matter, which had been refuted, 
and exposed, and logically put to rest. The only thing that seems to be novel is this : 
you have fallen, like theological sophomores, into the silly error of confounding the 
act of faith in the external evidence of the holy Bible, wilh the act of faith in our 
Lord, speaking in the Bible. By the former, we are assured that the Bible came 
from God — by the latter we do believe in Christ, speaking in the Bible, and through 
that faith, are justified from guilt before God. Now my profound opponents cannot 
comprehend the distinction ! And what is more, no papist ever can. For he 
believes in the "church, namely Holy Mother." And by that faith is he saved. 
This, gravely, is their avowed sense of that sentence in the creed — " I believe in the 
catholic Church" ! ! ! 

1. My exposureofyour Vulgate Bible has, I see, taken eftect: it has stung the priest's 
eonscience ! And you cannot conceal how much you writhe under it. No wonder : 
Magna est Veritas, atque prfcvalebit ! — But you have not examined, far less refuted 
one of my statements. And I compliment you again on your wisdom in not touch- 
ing tliem. Every Jesuit is a spiritual man of war, from his youfli up. And in your 
tactics Holy Mother cnforc<is no rule more anxiously than this : — irhe?H'Vcr your 
opponent advances an argument which you cannot ansiver — take special care not to 
touch iV ! 



88 ROMAN CAtHOLIC C0]*rTR0V£R9r. 

The strongest thing j'-ou have said here, in reply to my exposure of your Vulgate, 
is this : " Your attack on it, you have borrowed from Pope's discussion with M'Guire^ 
&:c." My good padres, T did not know it : for, I am sorry to say, that I have not yet 
been able to add that book to my list. I have never seen it. * But, gentlemen, you 
must have seen that I copied my authorities from the fountain head, — such as Nolan, 
Home, Willet, Father Paul Sarpi, Pallavicini, and the collections of Cramp. And, 
gentlemen, if, as you say. Pope was so ill informed on the subject, as not to be able 
lo silence M'Guire promptly on this point, by an exhibition of the endless errors, varia- 
tions, and contradictions existing between the Sixtine, and the Clementine editions of 
the Vulgate, he was very ill qualified for his duty. Every scholar knows that Dr. 
James, in his Bellum Papale, has pointed out two thousand variations between these 
two papal editions. And an}'- one by taking up Home, vol. ii. p. 200, 201, can see a 
specimen of these errors, omissions, additions, and contradictions. I mention Home, 
because he is in every minister's library. And I again refresh you with Reuchline and 
Jerome's words,^" the Hebrews drink of the wellhead; the Greeks of the stream ; 
and the Latins of the puddle !" And, at the same time, I renew my public challenge to 
you to tell the public, to which of these erroneous and contradictory editions of your 
Vulgate, from the hands of these two equally infallible and contradictory popes, you 
give in the adhesion of your flexible faith and conscience. 

2. I also beg leave to renew my demand of an answer to the question in my last, 
and which you have shunned. You have always averred, and can we doubt your 
honor, that j^ou insist that your laity read the holy Bible ? Even your pope, you said, 
approves of your Douay ! Now, we demand of you to tell us if there he one English 
virsion of the Bible authorised by either the pope or the church ! We say there is not 
one authorised version in our language ! Will you venture, Sirs, to contradict it ? I 
possess evidence ; namely, the testimony upon oath, of some of 3^our first men in Ire- 
land, given in before the British parliament, to confirm what I say! 

3. You are involved in a difficulty, really inextricable, from my quotations from 
the Greek and Latin fathers. And 1 am anxious to show how great this difficulty is. 
There is no contradiction as you affect to say, between my Letters I. and VH. You 
know as well as I do, that the fathers have been altered, mangled, and corrupted in 
many parts. But providence so ordered it, that these knavish monks who corrupted 
many parts of them, did not succeed in corrupting all of them ; or all parts of each of 
them. Hence the many glaring contradictions on their pages. Now, take it which 
way you please, gentlemen, the quotations from the fathers are absolutely fatal to 
your sinking cause. It is an immutable doctrine of your church, that no rite, nor 
doctrine is from God, unless it have the unanimous consent of the fathers. Hence it is 
utter folly in you, gentlemen, to do as padre Levins has done ; namely, to quote a 
sentence or two. This will never do. You must have their unanimous consent. If 
1 do produce, as you know I have done, a sentence from these, contradicting yours, it 
is of no conseciuence to our Protestant cause, which of us is right. It is enough for me 
that I destroy your unanimous consent. I beg my readers to remember this important 
maxim. It is to administer glorious service to us in our future discusions of the Ro- 
mish doctrines and ceremonies. 



* This statement brought nie in no less than fico copies in one day: and one of them, I 
wish to be grateful in saying it, was from a R. C. Pncst ! Here let me add, that so deep 
and solemn was the sympathy of the protestant public, that books were sent in to me from 
persons of every sect and denomination, many of which generous friends, I never saw,, 
nor heard of, before. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 89 

4. You call Protestants " the children of the Bible." We are grateful for this honor 
wrung from such lips. Truth is rare and valuable like gold ; especially when it 
comes in small grains amid mountains of falsehood. But you venture to say that we 
have " the most abominahly corrupt Bible that ever appeared.^' You add : " Mark our 
proofs and weigh them well: read Broughton's advertisement of corruption, to the 
lords of council in 1604." 

Our priests are as defective in historical education, as they are in biblical criti- 
cism. Is it not astonishing that a priest, or any school boy, should really not know 
that our translation now in use, was not in existence in 1604 ? It was not finished 
until the year 1611 ? Our priests are absolutely so illiterate ihat they do not know 
that they are charging on our present, and admirable translation, the errors that 
existed in preceding translations ! 

They commit a similar blunder when they say that, "in the Hampton conferenc® 
all the English Bibles were pronounced infamons translations." Is it credible that 
priests should be so utterly ignorant of familiar historical facts ? Our version, now in 
general use, was made after the Hampton conference ; and in consequence of the 
learned puritans requesting King James to select able men to give an accurate trans- 
lation. See Neal's Hist, of the Puritans, ii. ch. 2. Home's Introd. vol. ii. p. 249. 

5. And as our priests appeal to Walton and others, as favoring their sentiments, re- 
lative to the Douay, and to our version, the public can conceive what reliance is to be 
placed on the faith and quotations of the priests, from the following criticism of Walton : 
"The last English translation of the Bible, made by divers learned men, at the com- 
mand of King James, may justly contend with any now extant, in any language of 
Europe." And the learned Selden, a better judge than the pope, and his millions of 
priests combined, calls it " the best translation in the w^orld!" And omitting other 
equally great judges, your own Geddes, a Socinian Roman Catholic priest, speaks of 
it thus: "If accuracy, fidelity, and the strictest attention to the letter of the text, do 
constitute the qualities of an excellent version, this, of all versions, must, in general, 
be accounted the most excellent ! 

6. You have not given a fair exhibition of Bellarmine's views of papal infallibility. 
He and these of his sect in the Romish church, do actually place it in the pope alone. 
I quoted him and the canon law. These exhibit the pope as absolute: "a god on 
earth," in the place of Christ, " loco Christi :" and accountable to no council; doing 
on earth what he pleases, even as God does in heaven ! Hence they make him the 
sole depository and fountain of infallibility ! You simply deny that any son of" Holy 
Mother" ever held such sentiments, and get rid of my quotations by misstatement, 
and mysticism. I need scarcely add that those who look into Beljiarmine and the 
canon law, will perceive that you are either by design, or accident, absolutely ignor- 
ant of your own standard papal writers ! 

Finally — There is one other point on which I find something apparently new. In 
a fresh and most unchristian ebullition against the holy scriptures, you (juote Dr. 
Curtis's pamphlet in which he numbers no than 2931 intentional departures from the 
received version of our English Bible ; that is, he undertakes to show that, in the 
printing, all these errors have been introduced. And in this detection, our reverend 
christian priests exult, and leap for joy, as if they and their agrarian auxiliaries had 
actually made a breach in the walls of Zion! I 

I have convicted my opponents of Deism : and I have evidence that every tliiuk- 
iiig christian in the community is fully and painfully salislied with the evidcuwe. 

9« 



90 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

And to establish this fact was in indeed my main reason for lingering so long on (ha 
rule. We have succeeded in dragging out this lurking Antichrist from his deceptions 
den ; and we have branded on his forehead a mark and a name which all his holy 
water can never wash out — namely : " This is the father and prince of Deism!'' 

And as if they were resolved, unblushingly, to wear the mark and the name, the 
priests have made this new assault, through the aid of Dr. Curtis, against the holy 
scriptures. Now, mark the proofs of their dishonesty in this matter. When we 
remember the source whence our priests got their information of Dr. Curtis' re- 
seaxches, it was morally impossible for them not to know that the profound scholar, 
Dr. Cardwell, of Oxford University, has entered the lists against him, has overthrown 
him, and exposed his errors completely. I shall edify my honest and accurate 
opponents, by quoting a little specimen of this exposure. In the book of Genesis, 
Dr. Curtis musters the formidable array oi^ eight hundred and sev^.n variations, and in 
the gospel of Matthew, no less than four hundred and sixteen ! This, to you and 
every infidel, is a very refreshing and comfortable discover^-. But pause a little. 
Our champion, Dr. Cardwell, goes over the same ground, collates the various copies, 
and shows triumphantly that in Genesis there are only nin€ variations ; and in Mat- 
thew only eleven ! And these affect not the sense : nor trench on doctrine ! If a 
Jesuit could be brought, by any power short of di^-ine grace, to blush, my guilty 
and treacherous opponents ought to blush to their ver\- tonsures! But, the grace 
of God only can make a culprit see and feel his crimes ! 

I have one remark more. I am prepared for even the ultra deism of the Vol- 
taire school from you, gentlemen, but the indecent sally in your last letter, I was 
really not prepared to hear. I allude to your revolting blasphemy, in your last 
letter. Will the christian community pardon me for quoting it ? " One thing is 
certain, the Holy Ghost must consider you (Dr. B.) no extraordinary genius, when, 
after a course- of thirty or forty j^ears in his school, you betray such ignorance." &c. 

The ignorant and deluded victims of popery, who can write and inflict on the 
church, such outrageous blasphemy against the most Holy One, cannot be said to 
believe that "there is any Holy Ghost." And it were mockery to call ihem christ- 
inns! I appeal to every one of the five hundred thousand christians in the United 
States, who read our letters ! Have we not convicted tl:e priests of Deism, and 
deliberate blasphemy ? 

One word to the confederated parties : Gentlemen priests : Your very natural and 
anti-christian invectives against God's holy word, have been gladly hailed by all the 
infidels in the land. I said gladly, for in the absence of the Agrarian chief, now 
laboring in the cause of deism, in England, they rejoice at any little aid to their cause, 
come it from a lloman priest, dyed in the wool : or come it from a genuine pupil of 
Frances Wright. x-Vnd this is no despicable attribute of their system, that they are 
very thankful for very small favors ! It is true ; and I only remind you of it : they 
have applauded your intellectual industry against God's holy Bible, at the expense of 
your sincerity and moral honesty. And it ought not to be concealed that these, 
your auxiliaries, gravely pronounce you hypocrites. Prepare the watch-word, there 
will soon be trouble in the camp ! 

And, gentlemen deists, — I use not the title invidiously, — are you av.-are of tha 
character and pretensions of the Roman priests with whom you make common cause ? 
Are you aware of the consequences which will follow, should you succeed in conduct- 
ing tliem into power, in these United States ? Look at Italy, at Austria, Naples, and 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 91 

Spain. You are helping to light up the fires of the Auto da fe ! The Roman church 
cannot exist without persecutions, massacres, and the burning of her foes. For she 
holds no faith with heretics : and that it is a most meritorious deed to extirpate heretics ! 
In aiding the Roman priests (who laugh in their sleeves at your credulity and weak- 
ness) you are preparing the fire and fagots ! You are preparing for yourselves the 
unenvied distinction of being the last devoured ! Pause, and think. Do not strengthen 
the tyrant's arm which is raising the blow against our fair and happy Republic ! 

I now go on to show that the Roman Catholic Church is younger thaw 
Christianity : and that Popery is a mere novelty in the religious 

WORLD. 

Here I would observe that the church of God is one great and holy body, of which 
Christ is the head. The church has existed from the beginning of the world, it exists 
now, and will exist to the consummation of all things ; unaffected by the lapse of 
time, or the change, and succession of individual members. 

The church has ever held the truth. And truth descended from God, and has ever 
kept her throne in Zion. Christ the King of truth, reigns in her forever. Nothing 
of human invention is of the truth. Every item of it comes from God, through 
Jesus Christ. 

The following are some of these leading truths which never failed in the church; 
and which have ever distinguished the church from all human societies. And wher- 
ever these doctrines are wanting, there " Satan has his seat;" — there is " his syna- 
gogue." 

1st. The one living and true God is the only and exclusive object of divine worship 
and veneration. The church of God never prayed to creatures ; never made suppli- 
cations to dead men, or dead women. The pagan, and afterwards the anti-cliristian 
apostacy alone, did this. The pagans deified their heroes and heroines, and made 
supplications to them. The antichristian apostacy, faithful copyers, have, in like man- 
ner, deified or canonized their dead spiritual heroes and heroines ; they offer incense to 
them ; bow down before them ; and make solemn supplications, and prayers to them. 
These systems are twin sisters ; begotten by their common father, the prince of dark- 
ness, the grand enemy of divine worship, and the originator of all idolatry. 

2d. The Church has always held faith in one savior, Jesus Christ; and his 
ONE perfect sacrifice. Pagan and antichristian apostacies have renounced this. 
The sacrifices of the former, and the mass sacrifice of the latter, have displaced and 
rejected, completely, the one only sacrifice of our blessed Lord. Besides, popery has 
created such a host of mediators, and mediatrices, and intercessors, in the deified 
saints, that the humble faithful cannot get a sight of the one only mediator Christ, on 
account of the countless rabble of saints put into the place wliich HE alone occupies. 

*5d. The church of God never used images to aid her worship. She was sohMinily 
prohibited from this iniquity by the second precept. "Thou shalt not make unto 
thee any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing, &c. Thou shalt not bow- 
down thyself to them, &c." This is the literal version of the Hebrew original ; and 
every other version is false; and docs, of design, cover idolatrous practices. As for 
the cherubim, and the brazen serpent, they were made by an e:rpre.<^s command of (hd : 
and they were not used to worship God, in any sense wliatevor. It was U>r (ho sin o( 
idohitry, or using images and false gods, that the ancient Jews suficred most severely, 
by the terrible judgments of God on tliat heaven daring sin ! 

4tli. The circumcision of the heart, or spiritual regeneration wa>j a peculiar doctrine 



92 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

of the church. *' Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of 
God." This doctrine is unknown to pagans, and laughed to scorn by the pope, and 
his priesthood. They hold that no " internal grace" is needful in the members of the 
church, but only "external profession." And most gravely they assert that wicked 
men, and even reprobates, remaining in the public profession of the church, are true 
members of the body of Christ." See Bellarmine De Eccles. Lib. iii. cap 2 and 7. 
And the Rhem. Annot. on 1 Tim. 2. Sect. 10. And on John 15. Sect. 1. Willet, 
p. 51. 

5th. The church always held that God only and exclusively, is the lord of the 
HUMAN CONSCIENCE ; and in no subordinate sense can any mortal claim power over 
the conscience. Almighty God will not share his throne with any miserable and arro- 
gant tyrant. All false religions lodge power with the priests to rule over, and dictate to, 
the conscience. This ever has been the characteristic of paganism, and Romanism. 
The evidence of this lies open to view on the page of scripture ; and in the historj^ of 
paganism, and the Roman church. 

6th. Almighty God alone can, and does pardon sin. He gave the law, pre- 
scribed the penalty ; we are his moral subjects ; to him alone are we accountable in 
the matters of sin, spiritual duty, and pardon. As church members we are to confess 
our faults one to another ; and so ought the priest to confess his faults to the people, if 
this text be quoted by them as authority for his innovation. But auricular confes- 
sion has no waiTant from Almighty God. Upon the principles of pagans, and Roman 
catholics, God has transferred over into the hands of immoral and polluted men, the 
government of his emjjire. If a priest has a right to receive the confession of sins,. 
and pronounce absolution, for money ; then has he the right to claim the judgment 
seat of heaven ; judge the dead ; and displace Jesus Christ, in order to make gain ! 

7th. The spirit of true religion is the unsubduable spirit of liberty. Wherever 
the worship of the true and holy One has been established by the gospel, there 
liberty has reigned. And, just in proportion as the gospel is left unshackled by the 
traditions, and interested schemes of men, has liberty had her splendid triumphs ! 
The Jewish church exhibited liberty diffusing happiness over a free and blessed people. 
When religion languished, tyrants bore sway. Let the people cast their eyes over all 
Roman catholic nations, and contrast their degradation, tyranny, priestcraft, and 
outrageous oppression, — with the light, liberty and happiness of Protestant countries ! 
Contrast Spain and Italy, and Austria, with Holland, and Scotland, and England ! 
Contrast the turbulent Mexicans, and Southern priest-ridden republics, with oar own 
glorious republic, and read the truth, visibly written, as with a sunbeam from heaven ! 
I would draw the attention of every sound politician to this point. I know of no other 
portion of civil and ecclesiastical history, more fruitful of great practical lessons to the 
patriot, and to our country, than tliis is. 

8th. The true and chaste spouse of Christ is not conjoined, in bondage, unto the 
state. *' My kingdom is not of this world," said Christ. And his servants are not 
allowed to usurp authority, or "be lords over God's heritage;" far less are they to be 
luxurious, proud, insolent princes, and truculent tyrants ! Tlie pagan and Roman 
religions; ajid those which are only half reformed have permitted the infidel princes 
of the earth, the " Lords spiritual and temporal," to tyrannise over the church : to make 
a tool of her, and her lordly revenues, to promote personal, and family ambition : until 
she is become, in many lands, a fallen and degraded thing ; vile, and impure ; and 
loathsome! The tyrants of the earth have converted her into '■'■The mother of 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 93 

h'artots, and abominations of the earth.'''' This is her name among the nations of the 
earth, and all the host of God. This name the linger of the Lord has M-Titten on her 
brazen forehead ! And an Atlantic of priestly holy water can never wash her clean, 
nor wipe the brand from her forehead ! 

These peculiarities of a false religion, show that Romanism is not the pure and 
ancient church of Christ. But this is only my introduction. The grand peculiarities 
c^ Popery, — with your leave, I shall class under ten heads, — or, gentlemen, ten horns, 
if you please. 

First. The pope's supremacy. I shall not stop here to refute these doctrines : 
1 shall merely establish their origin and date, in order to show that popery proper, is a 
mere novelty in the christian world. Our refutation shall be offered when we reach 
these, in *' the dependency of our argument." 

All papists admit the pope's supremacy. But among the sectaries in the bosom of 
'' Holy Mother," there has been great diversity of belief. There are four prominent 
kinds of faith, rending asunder holy Unity, on this essential point. One class vouch- 
safes him a mere presidency : a second votes him an unlimited sovereignty: a third, 
exalts the pope to an equality with God : the fourth, very modestly, makes the pope 
actually superior to God ! This I shall discuss again : I shall wait to see whether our 
learned priests wdll venture to deny this division. Ignorance of their own writers 
may very probably induce them to deny it. 

Now, according to the doctrines of the pope's supremacy, Peter was made the first 
supreme. And having died in A. D. 67, he was succeeded by some obscure beings, 
upon whose names even the Romanists cannot agree. But the holy apostle John 
survived Peter at least forty years ; and so these obscure but absolute supremes, were 
placed over this holy and beloved apostle ! This was really outrageous in the Romish 
church ! And, moreover, this apostle John has not, in any of his inspired writings, 
had the grace of God, or the good sense, to acknowledge this supremacy ; nor deported 
himself as a dutiful son. On our priests' principles, Drs. Power and Levins must 
denounce the holy John as a rebelious son of "Holy Mother !" What ! Live 40 years, 
and write so much scripture, yet say not one word for his holiness, and his essential 
supremacy ! Padre Levins ought, forthwith to excommunicate his memory, with bell, 
book, and candle ! Gentlemen, by what strange and unheard of negligence in discipline, 
has this been omitted by " Holy Mother ?" Never did her thunders of the Vatican thus 
sleep when her vengeance burned against the pious and martyred saints of Europe ! 

The early councils resisted papal supremacy. In A. D. 418, the sixth council of 
Carthage resisted three popes, one after another. The council of Chalcedon, held 
about the year 450, resisted pope Leo, on the question of his supremacy. A mighty 
and harmonious opposition was directed against papal usurpation by the bishops and 
and clergy of" France and Germany. lUyricus, in Catal. Test. Verit. p. 41, gives 
their epistle, in which they "admonish the pope Anastasius and his acconi})Hces, to 
let them alone, and not exercise their tyranny over them." 

The bishops of Belgia resisted the pope Nicholas, so late as 860, Illyricus records, 
in p. 80, their ei)istle to him, in which they say, — " We will not stand to tliy decrees ; 
nor hear thy voice ; nor fear thy thundering bulls! We assault thee with thine own 
weapon, who despisest the decree of our Lord God I" 

So late as the seventh century the Anglian bishops resisted pc^prry in England, and 
refused even to own the pope, and his Austin monks as christians, fc?ce Burgess' 
Tracts, p. 125, Lond. Prot. Journ. May, 1832. 



Pi &01tA!t CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

In Scotland, as is evident from Dr. Jamieson's history of the Culdees, popery and 
Bupremacy were resisted with strong indignation to even a later period. 

In Ireland the devout Irish resisted popery still longer. Dr. O'Halloran declares 
in his antiquarian researches, that " St. Patrick, beyond doubt, found in Ireland, when 
he arrived tliere, an estabhshed Christian Church." And he declares that "an un- 
compromising enmity existed in the minds of the Irish people against every thingcon- 
nected with Rome! "And we have the famous reply of the Irish divine, St. Ibar, 
on record, which he made to St. Patrick, who -vs-ished to exercise some jurisdiction: — 
" TFe never aclcnoivledge the supremacy of a fortigner /" Let every true hearted Irish- 
man record this reply of their famous native divine ; and remember the fact that Ireland 
never submitted to the pope's supremacy until overpowered by the conspiracy of th« 
pope, and I^ng Henry- II., in A. D. 1172. I refer to O'DriscoU's vit ws of Ireland, 
ii. p. 85. 

In Spain, the radical elements of popery and papal supremacy- were detested, and 
successfulh^ resisted, so late as the beginning of the eighth centmy. See Dr. Geddes 
on Popery, \ol. ii. 11 — 60 ; and McCrie's History of the Reformation in Spain and 
Italy. 

The emperor Lewis, son of Charlemagne, so late as the middle of the ninth century, 
with all his clergy and nobles, owned no supremacy in the pope; but on the con- 
trary sustained the power of the bishops and councils against him. Hence the 
devout exclamation of your own honest Platina: " O Ludovice, utinam iiunc viveres!'^ 
See Illyr. Catal. p. S6, Mom. Exer. p. 224. 

The best and early fathers warmh' opposed the Pope's supremacy. St. Augustine 
was the fourth who signed the famous decree of the African Milevetan Council. This 
dacree was made against all appeals from the African Church, by bishops, or mem- 
hers, to the pope ; and it was made in opposition to Pope's Zosimus, Boniface, and 
Celestine. See Mansi Collect. Cone. Tom. iv. p. 507; Venet. edit. 1785. 

Jerome, also opposed it : hear his words : " The Church of the Roman city is not to 
be deemed one thing, and the church of the whole world another. Gaul, Britain, 
Africa, Persia, India, and all the barbarous nations adore one Christ : and obser^-e one 
rule of faith. If you look for authority, the world is greater than a city, (Rome.) 
\Mieresoever a bishop is, whether at Rome, or Constantinople, or Alexandria, or 
Tanais, he is of the same worth, (or authoritv.) and the same priesthood." "But all 
are successors of the apostles. AMiy do you produce to me the ciistoms of one city?" 
To Evagr. Tom. ii. p. 512, Paris edit, of 1602. 

The following from St. Jerome has a very particular claim on our attention:— 
"Bishops should remember that they are greater than elders, (presbyters,) rather by 
custom, than by truth of the Lord's appointment : and that they ought to rule tbo 
church in common." On Titus Lib. i. cap ] . 

Hear Theodoret's memorable words : — "Christ alone is head of ail: the church is 
his body : and the saints are the members of his body : one is the neck : another the 
feet." "By bis legs understand St. Peter, the first of the apostles." On Sol. Song. 
Par. Lat. edit. 1608. So far from making Peter the head, he considered him the legs, 
which are supported by the feet, as you well know ! 

Then there is Tertullian's famous sentence, which your Romish writers have man- 
gled so scandalously — supposing that we, "ignorant heretics,," had not seen, nor read 
that honest witness against your supremacy. " Survey the apostohcal churches, in 
in which the verychairs of the apostles still preside over these stations ; in which their 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSr. 95 

^wn epistles are recited, uttering the voice, and representing the presence of each of 
them. Is Achaia nearest to thee, thou hast Corinth. If thou art not far from Macedonia., 
thou hast the Philippians and the Thessalonians. If thou canst go to Asia, thou hast 
Ephesus. If thou art near Italy, thou hast Rome, whence to us, also, authority is near 
at hand." Praes. adv. Hser. Cap. 36, p. 215, Paris edit. 1675. Now, it is a notable 
circumstance, that the Romish writers, when they quote out of Tertullian, leave out 
all that is put here m italics; namely, all but the last sentence ; thereby perverting 
this father, and making him utter what no man in his days had even conceived, or 
thought of. Mr. Hughes of Philadelphia, lately quoted him in this garbled manner; 
and received a suitable scourging for so doing ! 

I shall gratify you, gentlemen, with one refreshing quotation more. And if you do 
not give up your pope's supremacy as universal bishop, then on your own principles, 
are you the most obstinate heretics alive. For I quote from your own infallible 
and holy pope, and one whom you have deified too, and do invoke wiih incense, 
prayers, and holy wrestlings ; I mean pope St. Gregory, — Padre Levins very gravely 
tells us that he loves antiquities and all old things — were it even like " Holy Mother," 
a very old sinner ! Well, you must know that a bishop of the Greek church first 
claimed supremacy, and the honor of universal bishop; until one of the fathers of 
Rome, some of them pretty honest men at that time, rebuked his iniquity, and shamed 
him out of it. Now hear the infallible pope and saint Gregory — who wrote this in the 
close of the sixth century, namely, 590. Having shown that Peter, and Paul, and 
John were all members under one head, he says: — " No one desired to call himself 
universalis, or universal bishop." See Regist. Epist. Lib. 5. p. 743, Tom. ii. 

Again, for this is too good to be quitted so soon ; "I do confidently say that whoso- 
ever called himself universal Bishop ; or is desirous to be called so, in his pride, is 
the FORERUNNER OF ANTI-CHRIST; bccausc, in his pride, he prefers himself to the 
rest. And he is conducted to error, by a similar pride ; for as the wicked One wishes 
to appear a god above all men ; so whosoever he is, who desires to be called the only 
Bishop (solus sacerdos,) extols himself above all other Bishops." Tom. ii. Regist. 
Epist. In. 15. Epist. 33. edit, of Paris, 1705. 

Once more, for this is delectable, coming as it does from your great saint: — In his 
eulogy to the bishop of Alexandria, he solemnly affirms that " the primacy of Peter 
descended to three Sees: namely, Antioch, Alexandria, and JRo??je." Tom. ii. 887. 
Paris edit. 

Once more; for I am determined that Pope St. Gregory, if possible, shall save you 
from the mortal sin of holding the Roman pope's supremacy. Hear your holy saint : 
" If any one in that church assumes that name,''"' he was speaking of universal Bisho}i, 
'•'' which in the opinion of all good men he (his rival in the East,) has done; then the 
whole church ; {may it never happen) falls from its state, when he who is called univer- 
sal, falls. But let that name of blasphemy be absent from the hearts of Christians; 
which, when it is really assumed by one, the honor of all priests is taken away." — 
Regist. Epist. ; Lib. 5 ; Indie. 13 ; Epist. 20. also Lib. 7. p. 881. Paris edit. 1705. 

Thus I have proved by arguments and testimony from your own clmrch, that tJie 
supremacy, and infamous usurpation of your pope, is a novelty in tlic chiistiaii world. 
It was not fully gained by the " Man of Sin" until the consuiiiniaiiou of truth's over- 
throw, in tlio darkest hour of the darkest ages. 

Second. The invocation of saints, is a novelty introduced by the "Man of 
Sin" also. This originated in those bold and figurative cxi)rc8sion8, and fomis ot] 



36 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

apostrophising of the departed martyrs, common among declamatory preacheis- 
Invocation of saints began to show itself sometime after the beginning of the third 
century. It was violently opjjosed by the truly faithful, until the seventh century ; 
and finally, it was established, in spite of all opposition, only in the ninth century, 
when the church was driven into the wilderness. 

We have the testimony of St. Augustine against you on this point. "He is the 
High Priest who has entered within the veil; and who alo>e oi^ those icho have ap- 
peared in the Jl^sh, does intercede for us.'' On Psalms 64, vol, iv. p. G33. edit. 
Paris, 1635. 

Theodoret, who wrote in A. D. 451, says, — "Send up thanks-giving to God the 
Father, through Christ ; and not through angels. The council of Laodicea also fol- 
lowing this rule, and desiring to heal that old disease, made a law that people should 
not prav to angels ; nor forsake our Lord Jesus Christ." On Colos. 3 chap. Paris 
edit. Lat. 1608. 

St. Chrysostora declared [in the beginning of the fifth centun>-,] that "there was 
no need for minor intercessors with God." " With God it is not thus; for there is no 
need of intercessors for the peritioners ; neither is he so ready to give a gracious an- 
swer, when entreated by others ; as by ourselves praying to him." On Math, cited 
by Theod. Eclog. &c. 

More full is this saint on that passage of " sending away the woman of Canaan." 
Mark the philosopy of the woman ; she entreats not James, nor John, nor comes she 
to Peter ; she breaks through the whole company of them ; and saying I have no 
need of a mediator ; but taking repentance as a spokes- woman, I come to the fountain 
itself. I have no need of a mediator; have thou mercy on me." See his Disc, on 
this part of Mat. ch. 15, Paris edit. 1621. 

Gregor^^ Nyssen denounces creature invocation : " The word of God has ordained 
that none of those things which have their being b}- creation, shall be worshipped :" 
(T£.Jao-;j(Oj', that is venerated by prayers, or invoked in religious worship. " Moses, 
the tables, the law, the prophets, the gospel, the decrees of all the apostles forbid equally 
our looking to the creature." Orat. 4, in Eunom. Tom. ii. p. 144, Paris edit, of 
'cioiccxv. 

I shall onl}- add Epiphanius, of A. D. 336. He is a strong v\-itness against the 
atheism of saint worship or invocation. " Neither is EUas to be worsliipped, although 
he were ahve, nor is John to be worshipped Trpoc-Kitj-rjryf, i. e. bowed down before, and 
prayed to. Nor is Theela, or any of the saints to be worshipped, bowed down be- 
Ibre, or prayed to. For that ancient error shall not prevail over us, of forsaking the 
LIVING GoD, aud worshipping creatures. For they served and wors^npped the crea- 
ture more than the Creator, and became fools. For if an angel will not be worship- 
ped, how much more will not she, (the Virgin Mary) who was born of Anna?" See 
his book against tlie heretics. No. 79. p. 448. 

-Now, will you permit me to refresh your consciences, gentlemen, ^Wth a contrast 
of Romanism ^^'ith tliis primitive Christianity of the fathers. In the face of the Bible, 
in which the Holy Ghost commands us not to pray to, or worship creatures : in the 
face of the testimony of Councils, by the sainted fathers, you thus pray ; — " O Holy 
Ma.ry I— obtain for us by intercession, light to know the great benefit which Christ has 
bestowed on us." " O Holy Virgin, obtain for us by thy intercession, that our hearts 
may be so visited by thy holy Son, &;c." " O most pure Mother of God !" — What 
revolting blasphemy ! God's Mother ! I Mother of God ! ! Paganism never breathed 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 97 

such Atheism, god has no mother! The infiiiite and invisible being, god, has 
NO mother! What a most brutish mind conceived this idea ! What a brutaUzing 
prayer this is, to teach men! Christ our mediator, as man had a mother; but as God^ 
he had no mother. — But 1 go on. — " O Mother of God, we beseech thee, obtain for us, 
by thy intercession, grace to lead pure and holy lives, &c." Again : — " O most bles- 
sed Virgin, graciously vouchsafe to help us to accomplish the work of our salvation, 
by thy powerful intercession ! — Amen." See Dr. John Power's Catholic Manual; 
Rosary of the B. Virgin : N. York edit. 

The following 1 copy fro.m "the Roman Catholic prayer book, or devout christian's 
Vade Mecum.^^ It will be seen how Dr. Power, and the Philadelphia book differ in 
translating the same passage. Will the Bishops not take care, and look after such 
pope-daring innovations ! — " O most blessed Virgin, graciously vouchsafe to negotiate 
for, and with us, the work of our salvation, for, and with us, the work of our salvation, 
by thy powerful intercession ! Amen." 

Again: — "Confiding in thy goodness and mercy, I cast m3?self at thy sacred feet, 
and do most humbly supplicate thee, O Mother of the eternal Word, to adopt me as 
thy child; and take upon thee, the care of my salvation." " O God, grant, w^e be- 
seech thee, by the Virgin Mary, his mother, that we may receive the joys of eternal 
life, by the same Christ our Lord." 

I copy the following from the Litany of our Lady of Loretto. — The Litany means 
a solemn supplicatory prayer. "Holy Mother of God, pray for us! — Mother of our 
Creator, pray for us ! — Mother of our Redeemer, pray for us ! — Mirror of Justice ! 
pray for us ! — Seat of wisdom, pray for us! Ark of the covenant, pray for us ! — Gate 
of heaven, pray for us ! Refuge of sinners, pray for us ! &c. &c." 

But this is not the worst : one thing I am prepared to show, that the various Roman 
works which appear in English, are designed to impose on Protestants, and to conceal 
the real doctrines of Rome. Only look into their Latin books, — there you behold 
their frightful idolatry, in its rank growth, and perfection. Here is a specimen : "Holy 
Mother, — Ora patrem, jube filio, — pray to the father for us, and command thy son, 
&c." Again: — O felix puerpera, nostra plans scelera, jure matris impera Redemp- 
tori ! O happy Mother, atoning for our crimes, lay thy commands on the Redeemer, 
in right of thy being his Mother." And to consummate what all heathenism never 
conceived, in their comparative piety, a Roman saint, namely, Bonaventura, whom 
the pious and faithful do worship on July 14, annually, — has gone over the Psalms of 
David ; has stricken out Lord, (jod, &c. and has inserted Holy Mother, our Lady, &c. 
Thus: "In thee, O Lady, do I put my trust, &c." — "Let our Lady arise : let her 
enemies be scattered, &c." " O come let us sing unto our Lady : and make a joyful 
noise unto the queen of our salvation ! !" Psalm 110. " The Lord said unto my Lady, 
sit thou on my right hand," &c. &c. ! ! ! See Bonav. psall, ofthe B. Virgin; his 
works, Tom. vii. Rom. edit, of 1588. And Hist. Sec. Cluu. August, de Comem. B. 
M. Virg. And Morn. Ex. p. 523. 

And, lest these may be deemed too antiquated, I shall show that, in all that is idola- 
trous and wicked, the Romish church is immutable. The present Pope, Gregory 
XVI., in the Circular sent forth on entering his office, solemnly rendered adorations to 
the Holy Virgin ; and calls upon all the clergy to implore, — "that she who has been 
in every calamity, our Patron and Protectress nuiy watch ov(>r us, — and lead our 
minds, by h(!r heavenly influence, to those counsels which may ])Vovr most salutary 
to Christ's flock." " That all may luive a luipi)y and successful issue, let us raise 

10 



98 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

our eyes to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary; tvho alone destroys heresies! Who is o^sf 
greatest hope ! Yea the entire ground of our hope .'" See Laity's Directory, 1833. 

Third: — The use of Images in the churches is a novelty. Here I must be brief. 
The best of the fathers condemned the use of images : one Council in A. D* 300 con- 
demned the use of pictures in churches. In 700 the Council of Constantinople so- 
lemnly condemned them : and ordered their expulsion from the churches. In 754 the 
seventh Greek general council solemnly condemned image use and worship. About 
the nintli century this idolatry seems to have been established. 

Fourth : — The doctrine of purgatory is a mere novelty. — I shall in due time, 
produce the best of the fathers against it with St. Augustine at their head. It is most 
manifestly borrowed from the pagan fire purification of souls. And it has been a ter- 
rific screw in sacerdotal hands to extract from trembling mortals a hundred fold more 
money, than all the African slave trade ever has accumulated ! These two evils, 
namely, slavery, and the priests' fiction of purgatory, have been permitted by the 
wrath of heaven to be let in upon a guilty world ! The one dealt in human bones 
and sinews and blood ! The other, as St. John saw in vision, traded in human 
souls ! ! The lust of gold is the object of both ! This golden doctrine of popery 
•is only some four hundred and four years old ! It was ultimately established in 
Rome by the council of Florence, A. D. 1420. 

Fifth: — Priest's celibacy, that " old bachelor's joke" which vexes our holy fathers 
so much, is a novelty in the christian world. This usurpation of a freeman's rights, 
is unrecorded and unknown in all histories of common despotism ! No human tyrant 
ever was so atrocious as to enact it in any civil government. It is purely diabolical : 
none but the prince of darkness was capable to inspire the conception thereof into the 
mind of a papal despot. And none but the most slavish, trodden down, and heartless 
of all our species, — men, I may not call them, — can pretend submission to it ! 

Every priest and school boy knows that it is not only uncommanded in the holy 
scriptures, but set down as a predicted and prominent characteristic of Anti-christ. 
The "great apostacy" from Christianity was to be distinctly known by all men, as 
one "forbidding to marry !" 1 Tim. iv. 3. 

And every one who has looked into history, knows that pope Gregory VII., a tyrant, 
who, in point of atheism and vice, threw the entire line of the pagan emperors, his 
predecessors on the Roman throne, completely into the shade, as saints, in comparison 
with him, — was the man who conceived this instigation of Satan, and took away the 
unalienable rights of man; — the right of marriage, from the priests. This he did in 
the year 1074. Hence the celibacy of the priests is only some 763 years old. Before 
that, every priest, like other honest men, had his own wife. Since that, they have 
been " holy fathers''^ without wives ! 

Sixth and seventh ; Transubstantiation and the Mass. This striking peculiarity of 
popery is a mere novelty also, in the religious world not onl^s but even in the rational 
world. A doctrine which represents the priest's creating his Creator ; and making a 
wafer to be really the human flesh of Christ ; and which, therefore, by their own con- 
fession, makes men cannihals! I am perfectly grave, gentlemen. I ask you, what 
is the wafer, when you put it, with awful solemnity, on the projected tongue of your 
kneeling votary? You reply, it is the flesh and blood, really and truly, of Christ's 
human nature." Then does not every one see that they eat and swallow down 
human jiesh! If that make them not cannibals, then words have lost their meaning; 
and men have lost their reason, tlieir judgment, and their senses ! 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. »» 

Against this monstrous and disgusting novelty of the mass, we can produce the testi- 
mony of seventeen of your earliest and best fathers, namely, from Irenaeus to 
^t. Augustine. This papal invention was originated about the middle of the fifth 
century ; it ripened by degrees under sacerdotal ignorance and knavery, until the 
ninth century : and, finally, along with auricular confession, was established into a 
dogma and '^ sacrament of the Romish church, by the decree of pope Innocent III. in 
the fourth council of the Lateran, in the year 1215. Mosh. iii. ch. 3, part 2. Your 
own Scotus and Alphonsus give the same date of its age. Alph. De Castro, Adv. 
Hares. And although Bellarmine reproves these faithful statements, he, nevertheless, 
admits that the mass is no older than the year 1073 ; and he gives as the father of this 
innovation, pope Gregory VII., and his council at Rome. See Bell. De Euchar. lib. 
iii. cap. 23. So recent is this innovation of the mass by the confession of your stan- 
dard writers ! 

Eighth : The taking away of the wine, or holy cup, in the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper is a novelty. Pope Gelasius, in the year 492, pronounced this abstraction of 
the cup " an impious sacrilege." See Corp. Juris Can. Pars 2, Dist. 3. 

Ninth: The adoration of relics was introduced about the same time, w^ith the invo* 
cation of saints ; and it arose from the perversion of mementos, or keepsakes left by 
martyrs, and those who were dear to the church. To adore relics, or venerate them 
religiously, is to adore dust and ashes! So says St. Augustine: " Timeo adorara 
terram, &c. I fear to adore earth lest God condemn me." The Council of Carth., 5, 
Can. 15, says : — " Placuit, &c. It has pleased us to request the most renowned em- 
peror, that relics may be taken away, not only such as are kept in shrines, and images, 
but in what place soever, woods, or trees." Willet Synop. Papismi, p. -391. So late 
as the year 730, the council summoned by the emperor Leo III., did, with only one 
dissenting voice, decree that "the worship of images and relics was mere idolatry!" 
This decree was fully enforced by Leo ; and the churches were purified of them. See 
Morn. Exer. p. 217; also Pezel, and Lampad. Mellif. Hist, part iii, p. 37, 41. 

Tenth and last : — The keeping of the Bible in a dead language, and refusing the 
free and unlimited perusal of God^s holy word, is a novelty in the church. This 
usurpation, so characteristic of ghostly tyranny, is condemned by the uniform tenor 
of the scriptures. And I can produce at least twelve of the most eminent Greek and 
Latin fathers, who maintain the holy scriptures to be the only, and all sufficient rule 
of faith and morals : and who taught, what was, indeed, the universal sentiment of the 
whole primitive church, that it was the duty of all men to read and study them. I 
shall select a few. ^ 

St. Augustine was not in favor of keeping the Bible, and using prayers in an un- 
known tongue. He says — "They ought to be aware that no voice reaches God's ears 
that is unaccompanied with a feeling of the mind." — " These things ought doubtless 
to be corrected," — that is, the purest style and proper dialect of each people should 
be used in worship, — "that the people may say amen, to ivhat is clearly understood.''* 
Vol. I. p. 27, Bened. Edit. Paris 1685. Again, — " fVe ought to understand that wo 
may sing with human reason, not as it were with the voice of birds ! Thrushes and par- 
rots, crows and magpies are taught by men to pronounce what they do not know'' — just 
as your victims do your Latin prayers. — "But to sing with understanding is granted 
by the divine will to men." Vol. IV. p. 82. 

Hear, next, the ro[)roof of St. Jerome. "The ])ooplc who were asleep under their 
»iafiier«, will arise and hasten to the mountains of the scri])turt's." "And whoa 



100 roma:? catholic controversy. 

they shall be well skilled in reading them, if they shall not find any to teach thetn, 
their study shall be approved, because they have fled to the mountains ; and have 
reproved the indolence of their masters."' Tom. V. p. 415. Paris Edit. 1602. 

St. Chrysostom says, — ''Ignorance of the Scriptures is the cause of all evils.'' 
Homil. 9, in ch. 3. Coloss. And addressing the poor, and laboring men he savs, — 
" Hear, I exhort you, all men engaged in the bustles of life, and obtain for yourselves 
books, the medicine of the soul. If you will have notliing else, get the New Testa- 
ment, the acts of the apostles, the gospels, as tour constant teachers." Horn. 9. 
in Col. 3. And in his 3d Serm. on Laz. he goes over all the objections of tradesmen 
and laborers, and then adds, — "What sayest thou, O man, is it not thy business to 
study the scriptures, because thou art distracted with a thousand cares ? Truly, indeed, 
it is thine, much more than it is theirs." 

I shall quote one beautiful sentence more from this father: — " Whether you go to 
the Indies, or to the ocean, or to the British isles, or to the Black sea, or to the western 
regions, you tvill hear all persojis, every where, philosophizing from the scriptures : 
there is a difference of speech, but not of faith: they have a diiferent tongue, but one 
mind i" Serm. 53. On the usefulness of reading the Bible. 

Finally; St. Basil says: — "It is right and necessary that evert one should learn 
that which is useful from the holy scriptures ; both for the purpose of furnishing the 
mind with greater piety; and also that they may «o^ he accustomed to human tradi- 
tions r Tom. II. 449. Paris Edit. 1722. 

Hence it is most manifest that Popery, in its leading characteristics, is a mere novelty 
in the christian world ! 

The vulgar and illiterate question every one has heard reiterated, — "Where was 
your religion before Luther." This question maybe answered thus : — 1st. By a coun- 
rer question, — "Where was your face, this morning, before it was washed." 2d. "It 
is found, as a system, where your religion never can be found ; namely, in the holy 
Bible." 3d. "It has been found in profession, in thai unbroken line of faithful and 
holy men, descended from the Italick church ; and perpetuated in the line of the Wal- 
denses, Albigenses, Lollards, and Culdees ; together with the faithful in the Greek, 
the African, and the old Syriac churches. 

I shall conclude with the words of the accurate writer Voetius, with which every 
man, well versed in the history of the first six centuries, will readily accord : — namely ; 
*' In the first six hundred years of our era, there was no church, no one doctor, no one 
■martyr, no confession, no one family, no one member of the church : neither in the 
West, nor in any other part of the world, that was properly, and formally a Papist.'^ 

I am, gentlemen, yours trul}', &c. 

W. C. B. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER VIII. 

It opens with a discussion on false friendship, — Dr. B. has deserted and ruined the cause 
of his rule of faith. He aspired "to be the mighty erudite in the Hebrew and Greek of the 
Holy Ghost :" had it not been for his rash " ambitioning theological renown," and his ventur- 
ing "to challenge the priests," his rule of faith might have rested in obscurity, and enjoyed 
the respect which obscurity secures." But, sad to tell : disregarding the limits which nature 
fixed to his faculties, he fell, — ^likc Satan, " a brighter star ia a purer firmament." The 



ROMAN CATHOtiC CONTROVERSY. 101 

*" polemical athlete of Calvinism fell; and will the members of the M. D. Church 

fill up the hiatus by way of epitaph!" 

" We are aware, Rev. Gentleman, of the sorrows and afflctions of soul which now haunt 
you, — of your regrets for disregard of the monitions of your interior spirit, when you provo- 
ked your antagonists to engage in controversial conflict. We pity — for we have pity for 
you — the reputation you have lost by the contest." 

" But if you rest on a bed of tortures, you made it for yourself." 

" Could any thing else befall one who " had an inveterate selfishness for the bubble of dis- 
tinction ; a deranged or vitiated appetite for polemics; and the bravo of a few bigots and 
fanatics." They next hold up Dr. B. as duly punished by his fall, and perfect failure, for his 
daring to give " the challenge" to such men as the priests ! 

" Finding your letter VIII to contain no matter relevant to your rule of faith," — " but being 
a mere register, crude and false, of things, not bearing on the point in issue, it is consigned 
to the disregard it merits." 

Then follows an eternal repetition of all that they had advanced again and again, in oppo- 
sition to the scripture rule of faith. 

" It suits your purpose, because you cannot prove, on the principles of your protestant 
rule of faith, the Bible to be the word of God, to wander into irrelevant matter, and divert 
the attention of the members of the Middle Dutch Church from the real point under discus- 
Eion." 

"We recur to your past letters to again exhibit your illogical references, proofless asser- 
tions, and recklessness of truth, to again ' insert the hook in your nose.' " 

" Dr, B. writes, ' to charge the holy scriptures with obscurity, or deficiency, would be to 
bring a charge against the Holy Ghost.' Would not this contradiction be derided were it 
affirmed by a child; and yet, its author is preacher Brownlee, the ' writer and gentlemen' of 
the Middle Dutch Church, the erudite in the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost,' the 
Sampson Agonistes of the ^virtuous ladies' who sanctioned the obscene fiction, Lorett3." 

" How is 4e to compare parallel passages ?" He cannot prove the Bible to be the word 
of God ! You have not proved it." 

" Over the good and discriminating sense of the enlightened portion of your flock your false 
charges have not prevailed ; they rest on the same level with your proofs of the Bible being 
the word of God." 

" You call us 'deists and infidels !' We pity the degradation and malignancy of the will 
from which these terms emanate." 

" Dr. B. writes, — 'you have renewed your crusade against the Holy Bible.' This ridicu- 
ious, but malicions charge wc repel. Our crusade is not directed against the Bible, it is di- 
rected against j/owr Protestant rule offaith,^ — That ii to say, the bible ! ' Our sincere respect 
is evinced for the Bible, since, by our creed, we will not submit it to the indiscriminate judg- 
ment of every ignorant and fanatical mind.' " 

" To gull the ignorant among your flock, you aflect to designate us Deists, because we 
use your expression ' the Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghoj^t!' " 

" We have proved that the scriptures cannot establish their own authenticity, integrity, 
and inspiration: and our conclusion is, that, since you admit these characters as articles of 
faith, and admit them without any scriptural authority, the scriptures are not your onhj ni\e 
of faith. Ag lin we say, since all christians are obligod to believe the canonicity and inspi- 
ration of the holy scriptures, and since the canonicity and inspiration of the scrijiturcs cannot 
be proved by the scriptures, the divine author of the cluistian religion never gave (ho holy 
scriptures as man's only rule of faith. We fartluM- assert, that as your only rule of faith, is 
the writtf'n Word of God, contained irfthe Old Testament and the New ; and, as the books 
of the Oi.l) TKSTAMF.NT or of the NEW cannot prove their own authenticity and inspi- 
ration, — you cannot, consistently, believe they are authentic and inspired." 

"What! the creed of the christian, according to Preacher Brownlee, is to be derived 
from the scriptures alone, and those scriptures not able to prove their own inspiration, 

10* 



102 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

which is an article of faith every christian must hokl, in order to believe the religion divine, 
which he derives from the scriptures. 'If this be not absurdity or fatuity in its last stage, 
we know not the import of ideas.' " 

'' The priests care but little for your approbation, or censure of the Latin Vulgate. Your 
vituperation is of no consequence when such profound scholars as Grotius, Walton, and 
Mills pronounce judgment ; and you know they have spoken of the Vulgate in terms of ex- 
alted praise." 

Next thei-e follows a denunciation against translations of the Bible; — all is uncertain; all 
corrupt; we cannot have any confidence in one of tliem ; the translators were not infallible: 
vou cannot know this from the rule ! " Does the Bible tell you that the translators took no 
liberties with the Hebrew and Greek copies !" Hence all is utterly uncertain ; all doubtful : 
you have no rule ; no word of God ! " Hence no rational, no divine faith can he found with 
Protestantj-J'^ 

In this manner they run on through half a neAVspaper column, in impiety and deism not 
surpassed by Hume or Paine ! But their master piece of deception follows. Without inti- 
mating that at the Hampton Conference, the various defects of former translations of the 
English Bible, were pressed, in order to move the King to select the ablest men to make a 
new translation (which is the one now in use.) The priests collect all the objections made 
at this Conference, and hurl them forth, with dexterous Jesuitism, as the sentiments of the 
most learned Protestants, against all English translations without exceptions, as well those 
then in existence, as the one made afterwards ! ! 

"The Reformers," say they, after having declaimed against the horrifying heresies, and 
translations of Luther, Zuingle, Calvin, Beza, and the English translators, — "the Reformers 
have remorselessly polluted the pure fountain of eternal truth ; and have caused the people 
'■> drink of tliia poisoned source !" "Who then, can repose confidence in their translations?" 

All this, be it remembered, comes from our "learned priests," who have not yet learned 
\hG primary elements of HebrcAv and Greek! Admirable critics! They enter the lists with 
he profoundest scholars who ever lived, — I mean the translators of the English, the Dutch, 
-nd the Gernian Bible ! 

*' To your high toned demand, 'tell us if there be one English version of the Bible autho- 
rised b}'^ either the pope or the church,' we return the very brief answer — Transeat. If" 
you know the meaning of this term, you know what use to make of it." 

"We have advanced the most positive and convincing arguments to prove to you, that 
the Saviour of the world did not establish the holy scriptures as our only rule of faith, 
and these arguments you have not touched." 

I quote the following as a specimen of deliberate misrepresentation. The reader knows 
that we always have said that the Holy Ghost speaking in the rule, is judge of controversy. 

"You have undertaken to prove, that the holy scriptures alo^^e are the only rule of faith, 
and ONLY JUDGE OF CONTROVERSY established by Christ." 

" Not a word have you said to prove that the scriptures have been given to us as OUR 
ONLY JUDGE OF CONTROVERSY." 

"Now, Rev. Sir, we have many arguments to prove that the Scriptures were not es- 
tablished by Christ as the judge of all controversies in religion between christians. Our 
first argument is taken from the nature of the judicial office. The Judge between two in- 
dividuals at variance, is bound to express himself in such a manner as that both parties shall 
see what his sentence is. One party must see that it is for him, the other must see that it is 
against him. But the scriptures do not decide in this way. Therefore, the scriptures ai-e 
not the judge of controversies." 

Here 1st. the priests take advantage of their own misrepresentation. We say the Holy 
Ghost is the judge. 2d. They renew the old error that the infallible rule makes those who 
use it, infallible. 

To neutralize the above, let my reader put the words "Holy Ghost,'^ in the above sentence, 
(S the judge ; and he will at once perceive the blasphemy of the papal doctrine here expressed. 



jlOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 103 

The error and sophism lie here : — although the Holy One does speak, himself, infallibly, — 
yet because each of these parties do not infallibly see and feel that he speaks/or the one, and 
against the other : therefore, the Holy Ghost and his rule cannot be the judge, and the only 
rule! But we go on : "Now we say that one of two things must be admitted, either the 
scriptures have not hitherto pronounced sentence, clearly, evidently, and sufficiently, or, if 
they have, that either the Lutherans or the Calvinists are very stubborn or obstinate for not 
having obeyed the sentence of the Holy Ghost. Dr. Brownlee may take his choice." 

To neutralize this sophistry of deism, we need only apply the above argument to any con- 
ceivable rule, or revelation from God. Either man must be infallible, amid all his sins and 
miseries, before God ; and he must infallibly take up the rule in its true sense, and the 
Judge's decision; or, there is wo truth in it ; and no benefit derivable from it! Let the Ro- 
man Catholic only apply the above mode of argument to his own rule: and he must per- 
ceive that if it does not end all the divisions, and errors of Jesuits, and Jansenists ; Domini- 
cans and Franciscans; — nay, if it does not prevent, and heal all the errors and heresies of those 
uho have seceded from " Holy Mother,''^ — then is there no truth, no infallibility in it I And, hence^ 
this argument of the priests annihilates their own system ! 

It is amusing to see how Dr. B.'s denial of" God's Mother^' affects the priests. It is Nesto- 
rianism ' It is atrocious ! It is blasphemy ! What ! deny that a woman can be the mother 
of the eternal God ! Heaven daring man ! And they facetiously affect to fall into a fit of the 
hysterics ! But hear them. 

" When we ourselves see Preacher Brownlee renewing the blasphemies of Nestorius, 
under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, we shudder, and turn with affectionate reverence, to 
that Holy Mother, who has never sported with divine truth, and who stands like an Appe- 
nine, firm, and sublime in the light of Heaven." 

But they shake off the fit, and with it, all their consistency, — and actually themselves fall 
into Dr. B.'s Nestorianism ! Hear them. "Yet when we call her " Mother of God." we do 
not say that she is the Mother of the Divinity, but of the WORD MADE FLESH; GOD 
AND MAN IN THE SAME PERSON. This is what Preacher Brownlee calls, "revolt- 
ing blasphemy !" 

This is incorrect. We called that "revolting blasphemy" which the priests are pleased 
here, to assert, and to deny, with the same breath ? Every one must perceive that to call *ke 
Virgin Mary " the Mother of God," does make her the Mother of the Divinity. For there.J3 
one God only, and that one God is the one Divinity. Either there is more than one God, or 
the priests' doctrine makes a Avoman "the mother of the Divinity." There is no way of 
eluding tliis. 

It would be amusing and instructive to hear a Roman catholic priest explain, in an assem- 
bly of literary men, the text, in the Hebrews, relative to Mclchisedec, who was the type of 
our Lord, "/fe," that is our Lord, — "was without father, without mother." H,e was "witlwut 
father," that is, as to his human nature. He was " without mother;" and yet he had a mo- 
ther. As the son of man, he had a mother. In another sense, he had no mother. This is 
the point to be settled by the priests. It needs only the aid of common sense to say that 
only one possible conclusion remains, — he had " no mother" as God. — I ask only tiiis one 
item in the Romisli church's invocation, to convict lier of atheism, and anti-christianism ! 
She will never give it up ; for by the wise arrangeinent of divine providence, she will never 
cease to give, daily, infallible evidence that she is the anti-christ, and Babvi.on the 
Great ! If the Romish priests were to lay aside >this novel and invented title " MornER of 
God," — we should be deprived of one main evidence that she is the " wiioue ok Bauvlo.n,'* 
foretold by St. John ! 



104 IROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSt. 

LETTER IX. 

TO DOCTORS POWER, VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 
" There is nothing but roguery in villainous man." — Shakspeart. 

Gentlemen : — Your last letter clearly reveals what the religious public had long 
Buspected, and what you have been all along, anxious to conceal ; namely, the deep 
conviction on the part of the Roman priests, that the pecuhar dogmas, and ceremonies 
of their church cannot sustain the bold inspection of the American community. And 
hence every thing is to be hazarded, everything, even truth itself sacrificed, to prevent 
your antagonist from going forward into " the chambers of her imagery" ! I did conjec- 
ture, gentlemen, that you would not dare to follow me in the investigation of your 
christiano-pagan system of popery. But, now, in your last letter, you have settled the 
question. You will not follow me; you will not leave the rule; it is more easy to 
retail the scandal of infidels and priests, against God's holy word, than to enter into the 
arena, and defend your edition of baptized Roman paganism ! You have not the 
moral courage to stand by, and assist at the stripping of the apocalyptic " Mother of 
harlots.^'' You dare not stand forward and defend her nameless abominations, before 
the enlightened American public ! For me, — I shall go forward : five hundred thou- 
eand American christians have condescended to cheer me on. And "so may God 
do to me and more also," if, by the grace of God, I do not tear that veil off' from her 
haggard face ; and show her abominations to the whole house of God, in this land ! 

Jn your last letter, you have played off with increasing malignity, and more fellness 
of purpose, than usual, your infidel opposition to the holy word of God. You repeat, 
for the eighth time, your malignant opposition to the word of the Most High, which is 
the Protestants onZ?/ rule of faith. You repeat that the Bible is not the rule, and tho 
Spirit of God is not the Judge, because the Bible, and the Spirit cannot prove them- 
selves ! And this you assert in the face of the full and manifest evidence to the con- 
trary, which w^e set before you; from external evidence, which establishes the authen- 
ticity and genuineness of the Bible ; and from internal evidence. Those who disbe- 
lieve this holy word of God are worse than devils. For saith St. James, " the devils 
also believe and tremhle.^' Ch. ii. 19. It is no enviable distinction, gentlemen, to be 
posted as worse than the worst of ftllen angels I 

There is nothing new in your renev-ed crusade against the holy Bible, which requires 
me to pause in order to refute it. Your last idea of infidel vituperation has long ago 
been exhausted. The novelty is only in the manner: the virulence and vituperation 
are only put forth with new force. As if resolved that nothing on your part should be 
wanting to consummate the evidence set before the public, in proof of your unblush- 
ing" Deism, you are filling it up, even to overflowing ! And you seem now even to 
glory in wearing the name branded on your forehead, as the representatives of popery, 
— " this is the father and Prince of deism .'" It is true you profess sincerely to believe 
in the scriptures, even while you assail them fiercely. I do not doubt it : this is in- 
tended for effect. No one is so ignorant as not to know that even Hume always spoke 
respectfully of — to use his own words; — " Our holy Religion,'^ even while uttering 
his bitter hostility to it? And even Lord Herbert, the father of "the English deists," 
and also Lord Bolingbroke, always professed as sincerely as you, to reverence the scrip- 
tures ! Herbert even received a revelation from heaven to publish his book against 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 105 

divine revelation ! Remarkable enemies of God's cause have been remarkably in- 
consistent. The reason is obvious, public opinion has always staggered them ! 

If you choose, gentlemen, to continue your iniidel vituperations against the holy 
scriptures, 1 shall beg leave through you, to inform the public, that they can find, with- 
outyour vulgarity, every thing you have been retailing, already printed in old Mum- 
ford, and Milner. And in reply, they can find a full refutation of all your deistical ob- 
jections in Hornets Introduction. He has collected the refutations of every objection 
that deism has yet conceived. And the intellects of our priests, who never leave the 
beaten path of old Murnfurd, and Milner, have not been adequate to the task of devis- 
ing any one thing new against the holy Bible I 

Your defence of the uncouth blasphemy of calling Mary " the Mother of God," 
is unique, though in perfect keeping with the whole system of your sect. " The Mo- 
ther of the eternal God /" A creature made of dust and ashes the mother of the Al- 
mighty Creator ! A finite creature the mother of the infinite Creator! Then it was 
not the human nature of our Lord that was born ! It was the eternal and divine Es- 
sence of the Deity that was born ! Hence, previous to the birth of God, or 1800 years 
ago there was no God! ! If there was a God then, of course he was not born, then 
Mary is not the mother of God ! 

Besides, do j^ou not see that you confound the tioo natures in the one "person of 
Christ ? If God was born of Mary, then is the Deity a human nature ; and the hu- 
man nature of Christ is nothing else than the essence of the Deity ! You know what 
monstrous heresy this was ! 

I put it to the candor of any reasonable man, whether a match can be found equal 
to this revolting blasphemy, amid all the wildest vagaries of the human race, in their 
worst and most impious forms of pagan extravagance ! No, not one can be found : 
by one only is it matched : and we must go into popery to find it : that match is tran- 
substantiation ; in which a priest creates his Creator out of bread ; and then eats him 
up ! If such be Christianity, then I say, "May my soul be with the philosophers !" 
But no! It bears the deep branded stamp of its legitimate origin. Such doctrines, I 
speak it gravely, — could be invented only by the devil, as Richard Baxter said. 

In my last Letter, I showed that Catholicity is younger than Christianity ; and that 
popery is a novelty in the christian world. We have, by historical documents, and 
quotations from the fathers, fixed the birthday of the existence of ten of the Roman 
catholic peculiarities. And we call on the priests, in the face of the American com- 
munity, to point out a single error in these dates ; and refute the quotations of the fa- 
thers, which we have given. Let them follow us, if they have courage to defend 
their sinking cause ; and no longer make themselves ridiculous in lingering on the 
rule. 

It will be proper, in sustaining the unity of discussion, now to proceed to point out 
some of the fatal results of the Roman Catholics' apostacy from the only rule of faiih; 
and the only judge of controversy. And the point which I have selected for discus- 
sion in this Letter, is this : — The peculiar doctrines, rites, and monkish institutions of 
Romanism, were originated in sheer fanaticism, and sustained by imposture. My 
selections of specimens and evidence, shall be rather miscellaneous in this Letter. 

Ist. Notwithstanding the command of the Deity to take good herd and make no 
manner of simiUtude, 'Mbr ye saw," says the Ahniglit}', — "no similitude in the day 
that die Lord spake unto you in lloreb," — the Roman church declares in her cate- 
rbism, p. 3«J0, that " to represent the persons of the H<jly Trinity, by certain forms. 



106 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY* 

under which, as we read in the old and new Testaments, they deigned to appear, i^ 
not to l)e deemed contrary to reh»"ion, or the law of God. Hence in the engravings 
found in certain editions of the Breviary ; and in pictures on the stained glass of Ca- 
thedrals, and in a painting seen by any one who has visited the Roman catholic 
bishop of this city, God the Father is actually figured forth as a venerable, old, white 
headed man ! In other pictures where the group is complete, there is a "pretty, youth- 
ful man ; this they call Christ; and he is placed on the old man's right. Above is seen 
a figure of a dove : this animal they call the Holy Ghost. Hard by, in gorgeous hu- 
man robes, stands "the Mother of God."' This marvellous group of an old man, and 
a young man, and a dove, and a icoman, constitute the popish conception of the 
family of their god ! 

2d. In the distribution of work and offices assigned to the vast host of saints, much 
fanaticism is displayed. They have at least two St. Anthonies. He of Padua delivers 
his votaries from water : — He v/ho is sirnamed the abbot, delivers from fire ! St. 
Nicholas is invoked by young persons who wished to be married. St. Ramon pro- 
tects women who are "in that condition in which all good ladies wish to be, who love 
their lords." And the saint Lazaro assists them in labor. St. Domingo cures fevers ; 
St. ApoUonia takes care of the teeth ; and she must be invoked with praj^er and in- 
cense, by those who have tooth ache. Then St. Lucia heals all diseasesof the eyes; 
St. Petronilla cures the ague : St. Liberius the stone : and St. Blass all the dis- 
eases of the throat. St. Barbara is invoked as the refuge in war, and in thunder 
storms : and St. Roqne shields the humble faithful against the plague. Each king- 
dom of Europe has its own saint : other saints are more menial : One saint ]:)reside3 
over hogs: another over geese. See Cramp, p. 332 ; and Townsend's Trav. in 
Spain, vol. iii. p. 21.5. 

3d. In the canonizing of saints, and adding to the objects of divine worship, and ve- 
neration, we perceive a fruitful exhibition of fanaticism. This, like the usual pecu- 
liarities of catholic Rome, is boiTowed from pagan Rome. The pagan priests to sus- 
tain their credit, now and then proclaimed that certain great characters, great in war, 
vice, and sensuality, had been honored in heaven and placed among the gods ; and 
the pagan canonization took place accordingly. Even the modest and virtuous Viigil 
deified Augustus; and gravely asked him, while yet alive, in what part of heaven, he 
chose after death, to reign and shine ! The case of king Romulus is an apt illustra- 
tion of modern Roman canonization. There must be a miracle, or a vision at least. 
Well, Proculns appeared before the Roman Senate, and declared that Romulus had 
revealed himself to him in a vision, and told him that he was received up among the 
gods. See Plutarch, Vit. Rom. HaUcar. Lib. 2. p. 124. 

In modem Rome, miracles are required in evidence ofsaintship; and there is actu- 
ally an office in Rome, where the congregation of Rites sit, and gravely receive the 
transmitted accounts of fresh miracles ; and hear witnesses ; and judge as solemnly as 
they can, and decide, daily. Even Dr. Lingard is a simple and faithful believer in 
modern incredible miracles. Even the Goliah, Dr. Milner, while he rejects certain 
popish miracles by the wholesale, does, nevertheless, in letter 24, give in some very 
dainty and precious morsels of their blessed miracles. Well, on their miracles being 
duly vouchsafed to their impostures, and on their being duly estabhshed and registered, 
a new saint, and fresh object of worship is set up before the simple faithful. Almost 
every pope has added some. Benedict VII. added eight in one summer. Clement 
%ll., four more; others, one; others, four. But, hke all the other ''golden'" rites of 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 107 

Holy Mother*, it costs an immense sum to get into the ghostly calendar, and be a god. 
This is one way by which St. Peter's purse is replenished when it gets low. 

I shall adduce a specimen of a miracle confirming the ghostly honor. The idol of 
Pazzi, Italy, — namely, St. Mary Magdalene, received canonization for this among 
many other marvellous things. When the virgin body, after death, was exposed in 
church, a young man of profligate morals came among others to see it, touch it, and 
venerate it. On his approach, the dead body gravely and in disgust, turned 
round its head from him, as from "a horror of that dunghill !" This was witnessed 
and testified to, by no less than one Jesuit priest. Another evidence ef an infallible 
nature, and which is sure to gain the ghostly honor, is this : the bones and dust of 
saints, in their graves emit a sweet and delicious odor. This is " the odor of sanctity." 
I find in this same bull of the Pope which canonized this idol of Pazzi, that this is 
affirmed of this " Virgin Magdalene.'^ It begins, " not without good reason, with that 
incorruption, and good odor of her body, which continues to this day, &c." At Blois 
in France, when the chest of relics, kept in the parish of St. Victor, was opened, the 
monk of St. I.omer, cried out that he felt a very svjeet odor ; and others seized with 
the exemplary infection, said they felt the sweet swell of roses and the jessamine, from 
the dead saint's bones. See vol. i. p. 8, 10, Frauds of Roman Monks and priests: 
Prot. i. 373 Glasg. edit. 

In the absence of these saints, — "Holy Mother" has carefully collected innume- 
rable specimens of their relics, which are venerated and bowed down to. Indeed a 
Roman chapel is not duly consecrated without relics. The following are a few of the 
holy and venerated relics of St. Peters, Rome, namely : The cross of the good thief; 
St. Joseph's axe and saw : and what is a rare thing, — St. Anthony's Mill stone, on 
which he sailed into Muscovy. In other churches in Europe, they have a little speci- 
men of the manna of the wilderness; a comb of the Virgin Mary ; an arm of St. 
Lazarus; a finger and arm of St. Ann, the Virgin's mother: St. Patrick's staff, by 
which he expelled the toads from Ireland : and, what is very appropriate, a piece of 
the rope with which Judas hanged himself! There is also a vial of the Virgin's 
milk; a vial of the breath of St. Joseph, caught by an angel, as he was blowing hard 
when cleaving wood ' ! This rare relic was long adored in France ; piously carried 
to Venice : and lastly deposited with awful solemnity, in Rome. And finally, the 
head of St. Dennis, which he caught up and carried two miles under his arm, after it 
had been cut off. See Phil. Lib. June, 1818, Prot. vol. 2. p. 12, Glasg. edit. 

In furnishing the relics of saints' bones, whole church yards and cemetries have 
been ransacked; and sold to the simple faithful, for objects of adoration, and idols- 
Chips of the cross are in all monasteries, and chapels. Could these fragments be 
collected they would prove that the cross must have been large enough to build 
our United States' Navy. In many churches there is a head of John the Baptist- 
" How thankful I am," said a dignitary of the Roman church, on seeing a Baptist 
head: "this is the /owri/i head of John, which I have seen in France!" And Dr. 
M'Culloch tells us, that some years ago, five pilgrims arrived in Rome with relics from 
the Holy Land: and it was joyfully discovered that each of them had a foot of the 
ass which carried our Lord into Jerusalem. 

4th. In the grave pretensions of the Romish church to miraculous powers, there is 
a singular exhibition of fanaticiiiiri. You arc aware, gentlemen, that you hiy unblush- 
ing claims to niiraclca. "The Catholic church," says Dr. Mihier, Lett. 23, "being 
always the chaste spouse of Christ, — continuing to bring forth ohiidrcn of heroical 



108 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

sanctity, God fails not in this, anj^ more than in past ages, to illustrate her and them 
by unqaestionable miracles." And he proceeds to give rare specimens. A nun fore- 
told the catastrophe of Lous XVI. A certain benedict Labre prophesied, and wrought 
miracles, and converted no less than an American clergyman called Thayer. In 
1814, a man who got his back bone actually broken, was made whole by making a 
pilgrimage to Garswood, near Wigan, England ; and there getting the sign of the 
cross made on his back, by the relics of some obscure priest's hand, named Arrow- 
smith, who was killed in the days of Charles I. 

These, however, are small affairs when laid in the balance wdth the antiques ! For 
miracles, like the marvellous feats of travellers, are always great and marvellous, in 
proportion to their distance of time and place, from actual inspection. St. Patrick, 
they tell us, sailed overt© Ireland, and if there be no mistake, once also to England, 
on a millstone ! And thus he was not a whit behind St. Anthony. We are told that 
St. Dennis carried his own head under his ami two miles after it was cut off. " St. 
Francis of Sales," saj'^sBatler in his lives of the saints, vol. i. p. 168, " raised the dead ; 
cured the palsy, and the blind." St. Francis of Paula, raised from the dead a young 
man, and restored him to his mother. Butler i. 361. St. Francis, the founder of the 
Francisians, was favored with visions, and revelations of an apostolic grandeur. He 
predicted nothing less than his own death : and did many miracles by his intercession, 
after his death. Butler and St. Bonaventure affirm this, but give no evidence, and 
tell us not how they knew his miracles after his death. Moreover, he had a vision of a 
seraph with six wings: this presented to his view the visible crucified body of Christ. 
And the effect of this was, that the said seraph " caused the soul of St. Francis to be 
utterly inflamed with seraphic ardor ; and his body to have, and to retain the simi- 
lar wounds of Christ." "His hands and feet were pierced through; and the holes 
seemed to retain the round black headed nails of hard flesh in his palms and in 
his feet. And their long points on the other side, were turned back, as if 
clenched with a hammer. And in his left side there was a red wound, as if made by a 
lance. Pope Alexander IV. had the felicity of witnessing all these : and to give 
currency and stability to these miraculous and ingenious scratchings, his holines 
preached a sermon on the occasion. And the simple faithful believe this in prefer- 
ence to the only rule of faith: and worship St. Francis of Assissium, as another 
savior. 

St. Wenefride was a noble lady of Wales. Being a nun, she could not yield to the 
suit of Caradoc, the young prince. Being enraged at this, he pursued her, and with a 
cruel blow cut off her head This originated three splendid miracles, which taken 
together, are greater than any recorded in the holy Bible. In the 1st place St. Beuno 
interfered, and settled the career of the young villain. He made the earth open under 
his feet, and, Korah like, he was sunk down into the bowels of the earth. Then 2d. 
On the spot where the dead nun's head fell, a well opened, and poured its salutary 
streams; and that " Holy Well" works miracles, it is said, until this day. The 3d. 
St. Beuno took up the nun's head, kissed it; placed it on the bleeding stump ; covered 
it with his mantle: said mass, prayed to the Virgin Mary: And behold St. Wene- 
fride jumped up, perfectly well ; her head being on exactly as usual : and the evidence 
of the cure was perpetuated by the appearance of a fine circle, like a thread, around 
her neck ; — that being the place where the head and neck were nicely cemented 
together. Apostles and prophets ! did ye ever any thing to match this ! See Butler's 
Lives, &c. 



II 



ROKAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 109 

St. David, I presume the king of Scotland, who builded so many chapels and 
cathedrals, once ordered St. Kired to come to a Synod on weighty business. The 
saint excused himself on account of being lame and crooked. St. David immediately 
prayed him straight. But the ol(J saint still lingering, the choleric St. David forth- 
with prayed him crooked and lame again, to teach him better manners. 

St. Patrick in the Romish legends, receives credit and saintly homage for raising 
a boy from the dead after he had been nearly devoured by hogs. And on an- 
other occasion he fed 14,000 people, with the flesh of one cow, two wild boars, and 
two stags. And to crown the miracle, the simple faithful assure us that the cow was 
seen alive next day, grazing in the pasture field as usual. 

St. Xavier had a valuable crucifix. On a certain day, he dropped it overboard, 
into the sea. He was quite inconsolable. But, it came to pass, that as he was walk- 
ing on the shore in the land whither he had gone, to his astonishment and indescribable 
pj^ he saw the very crucifix he had lost moving towards him on the waves. As he 
hastened down to the water's edge, behold, it was very reverently and devoutly laid 
down at his feet, by a crab, who had borne it through the deep, miraculously, to the 
feet of the holy saint. Dr. Milner speaking of St. Xavier's miracles in general, says, 
that " they were verified soon after the saint's death, by virtue of a commission from 
John III. King of Portugal." See Letter 24, &c. But, as a writer has justly observ- 
ed, it was no miracle of St. Xavier: the crab has the whole merit: and he recom- 
mends him to his Holiness' notice to give him due honors, at his next canonization. 
Palmam qui meruit, ferat. It ought to be St. Crab. 

The Roman saints were particularly successful in their wrestlings, and coups du 
main with the devil, and his demons. On one occasion St. Philip Nerius, in 1555, 
saw a person near the baths of Diocletian ; and as he seemed, at one moment, young, 
and the next moment, old, the saint suspected it to be Satan, at some of his tricks. 
Whereupon he summoned him "in the name of Christ to discover himself." x\nd 
instantly the devil fled in great precipitation, leaving a loathsome scent in the place ; 
the reverse of the bones of the saints. And hence he knew, says he, that it was 
Satan. Seethe Acta Sanct. Tom. 6. Antwerp edit, of 1688. Maii. 2G. This is a 
famous Roman work, full of similar legends ! 

St. Francis was once sorely tempted by a devil in the form of a lovely female — an 
appalling object, you know, to a holy Priest! But, one evening, as he again assailed 
the saint, "lie spit in the devil's face." The Roman historians gravely add, — being 
"confounded and disgracefully defeated, the devil fled !" Acta Sanct. Supra. 

St. Andrew of Salus, was once assailed by the devil, armed v/itli an axe, and aided 
by several demons with clubs and lances. In their assault, the gallant saint invoked 
St. John the Apostle. Upon this, John instantly appeared, in tlie form of an old man, 
and putting his back to the door, to prevent all egress, he ordered the holy ones who 
accompanied him, to chain down each of the devils, and with the chain taken from 
St. Andrew's neck, to scourge them thoroughly. This was done to so elleclual a 
purpose that the devils cried out "Mercy! mercy! mercy!" And the holy St. An- 
drew, it is added, by our Roman historians, could not restrain himself from bursting 
into laughter, — "risu correptus est," — at the complete belnboring givc>n to tliose 
unruly fiends ; and at their wild screams. See Acta Sanct. Tom. (». Maii. 28. 

St. Dominick, while sitting in his dormitory, wriling by cniidle liglit, was assailed 
by the devil in the form of a monkey, strutting, and making grimaces betijvo him. (>ii 
this, the saint ordered him to come forthwith, and hold his candle, whieh. wlihoai a 

11 



no AOMAN CATHOLIC C05TR0VERST. 

candlestick, the crafty saint put into the demon's hand. Presently the candle bein^ 
burned out, the devil's fingers began to be scorched ; and he wailed and howled 
hugely. Nothing moved by this, the saint ordered him to hold on. And the devil 
was compelled to hold the burning flame, until his forefinger was actually consumed, 
unto the joint ; " usque ad juncluram raanus, totus crematus est." And to complete 
the victory, this holy founder of the Dominicans, gave the devil a smart blow with his 
walking cane, and said, "Depart thou wicked one." The blow sounded as if he had 
struck a dry bladder full of wind. " Upon this the devil fled, leaving a miglity stench 
behind, which plainly discovered who this creature was." See Acta Amplior. St. 
Dom. Augusti 14. Finch p. 410. This, you know, gentlemen, is a morsel of your 
own sober history, here detailed. 

The fanaticism of the Roman writers, is further displayed in the object for which 
they hold up these monstrous figments, and diabolical rencounters. Hear their own 
words. " Truly this man (St. Dominick) is to be extolled among the angelical 
2iowers, who so powerfully confounds and reproves diabolical wickedness." 

Finally, not only have men, but even statues and images wrought miracles. So 
late as 1796 ^^ Official Memoirs," relative to "miraculous events," were published, 
and signed, and authenticated by Dr. Bray, archbishop of Cashel, and Dr. Troy, 
archbishop of Dublin, and twelve other dignitaries of the Romish church of Ireland. 
In these " Memoirs" it is stated that in May, 1796, at Toricello, a torrent of tears ran 
down from the eyes of a wooden Virgin Mary ! And such a perspiration flowed from 
her, as to wet the clothes ^^ applied by the faithful.^* Blem. p. 217. 

On July 9, 1796, a picture called Delle MUrattCi w^as observed to move its eyes in a. 
miraculous manner. The circular movement of the eyes continued for many months. 
The result of this was the procuring of many gifts, and large sums of money, for the 
Virgin ; and a marvellous excitement took place ; and nothing but prayers and vows 
to holy 3Iary vras heard. Immense crowds of devotees were constantly before the 
painting; and altars were every where erected to the Virgin; and a prodigious im- 
pulse given by this lying wonder, to the Romish devotion. See Off. Memoirs, p. 35, 
and Finch p. 280, 281. 

5th. Doctrinal sentiments and rites have been defined and settled by visions and 
revelations, in the Roman catholic church. The original followers of St. Francis 
were frightful fanatics. The holy mission of this saint being established by his mi- 
racles, by his five holy wounds, canonization, and the miracles achieved by him after 
death, and by his intercession, his followers were prepared to receive him, as a second 
Jesus. In a book called The flowers of St. Francis, it is written, "that those only 
were saved by the blood of Christ, who lived before St. Francis ; but all that followed, 
were redeemed by the blood of St. Francis P^ See Eymericus, and Wolfii. Lect. 
Memor. cent. 13. See also Bishop Stillingfleet, on the idolatry and fajiaticism of the 
Rom. church, p. 236. And the votaries of this man, the Franciscans, in the words of 
Petrus Johannes, made the rule of St. Francis equal, — nay to be the very same as 
the gospel of Christ, and that by which Christ was directed! 

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, long distracted "Holy 
Mother." The Franciscans held that she was born as pure as an angel ; and I find 
that our vicar general, Dr. Power, holds this, and teaches it in his Manual. On the 
contrary, the Dominicans utterly denied it. Who was to settle this? "Deo dignus 
vindice nodus !" The holy Bible says nothing of her immaculate purity. Besides, 
" Holy Mother" denies that the word of God is her only rule. Anselm produces the 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. Ill 

evidence of an apparition in a-storm (a very fit season !) to some Abbot; this vision 
announced the Virgin's immaculate purity, and admonished all good men to keep the 
feast of the Conception. One Nerbertus had another vision, — no less than the Holy 
Virgin herself enforcing the same thing. St. Gertrude also had revelations to the 
same purport ; then St. Bridget brings not a few, but many revelations to the same 
purport ; and lastly Johanna a Cruce. These were solemnly declared b}^ the Doc- 
tors to be such " that no man can reject them unless they intend to be as great heretics 
as Erasmus-l" The Roman catholic Erasmus ! Eheu ! 

But unfortunately, fanaticism stops not always on the right side: that is to say — 
your side, gentlemen, who believe in " the immaculate Conception." For while 
Baronius gives us the above details, Antonius and Cajetan assure us that St. Catha- 
rine had a holy vision and a holy revelation; and it was told her by a spirit of hea- 
ven, that the Virgin was conceived in original sin like all other people ? Great names 
condemned St. Bridget's visions. Cajetan, for instance, calls them "old wives' fables 
and dreams !" — Sit fas loqui ! JBut she was approved by doctors, and cardinals: and 
her visions and revelations declared to be divine, by pope Boniface IX., who accord- 
ingly, enrolled her among the saints, and other idols worshipped in your church. But 
after all, "Holy Mother" gives each of them fair play, as Bishop Stillingfleet justly 
observes. She approves the revelations of both: pronounces the authors of the con- 
tradictory revelations both equally inspired by God ! And in the Roman Breviary^ 
on the 8th of October, you worshipt^St. Bridget; and in your prayers to her, " confess 
these revelations to have come immediately from God to her.''"' And in one of the lessons 
for that day, you devoutly " magnify the multitude of her divine revelations.'" And in 
the Roman Breviary, April 30, you mg^nify the saintess wdio opposed the Immac- 
ulate Conception, as much as its heroine. St. Catharine's " holy testacies,'''' are glori- 
fied in the lesson of the day; and you adore piously "the five rays coming from the 
five wounds of Christ, making five miraculous marks on the correspondent parts of 
her sacred body, namely, hands feet, and side ! Dr. Power yields his solemn faith to 
St. Bridget. Pray, to whom do Mr. Levins, and Dr. Varela yield the simple faith of 
their pious souls ? 

6th. The great monkish orders of your sect have been fomided by fanatics, in their 
raving fanaticism. First, the Carthusians were founded by St. Bruno ; he was guided 
to the spot where he founded his monastery, by a vision of seven stars vouchsafed to 
his coadjutor St Hugo. " Many miracles after his death," says Butler, — "attested 
his sanctity and favor with God." Lives of the Saints ii. 459, &c. The manner of 
St. Bruno's conversion as narrated by no less than sixty Roman catholic writers, indi- 
cates that he commenced his career in fanaticism. He was standing by when the 
funeral service was being said over a priest ; when the dead man started up, and said, 
*'By the just judgment of God I am damned!" Having said this, he instanlly died 
again. By this was St. Bruno converted ! — Launoy Dc causa Sue. Brun. c. v. 

Second. The Benedictines were founded by St. Benedict. This Roman worthy 
was favored with an incredible variety of visions and revelations. He predicted mar- 
vellous events, and wrought many miracles. The thorns and brambles on wliich he 
i-olkd, in order to expel his raging lusts, grew up, and had the honor of having St. 
Francis to engraft roses on tlicni, which always bloomed in winter. When a boy fell 
into the river, he foresaw it while in his cave : sent his servant, who walked on the 
water some distance, and pulled the boy out. When some wickcnl ikmsous brought him 
poisoned drink, he made the sign of the cross over it, and the vessel burst into a tliou- 



112 



ROMA.V CATHOLIC CO.VTROVERST. 



sand pieces. He was so sharp-sighted that he could see spirits. He alone saw *• the 
little black devil which led away a monk from prayers." I am soberly quotin? vour 
writer's own words, gentlemen. He saw his sisters soul enter heaven in the shape of 
a dove; and that of the good bishop of Capua, in a fiery circle! And, finally, "he 
was rapt up into heaven, and saw God face to face." See Butler. BoUandi Acta Sanct. 
Fit. Bened. StilHng. p. 203, &c. 

Third. The Dominicans were founded by St. Dominick, whose character, as an 
extravagant fanatic, we have already noiiced. He had his first meeting with St. 
Francis at Rome : and there he made known his modest and spiritual vision, namely, 
•' that Christ was just coming to destroy the wicked world ; but his mother, the Vir- 
gin, stopped him, and informed him that she had famous senants who were to reform 
the world; he himself vr as one whom the Lord approved as one who would do this 
work," &c. See Rainald, A. D. 121d. n. 48. StiUing, p. 273. Wolfiiis, in his 
Lect. Memor. cent. 13. p. 509, tells us of the statues set up in St. Mark's church at 
Venice; one of St. Paul, with this inscription: ''By him we go to Christ :" the 
other, a statue of St. Dominick, with this modest Roman inscription: "By him 
we go easier to Christ!" His order was, in all respects, worthy of such a founder; 
they were, as Stillingfleet says, *' the most blasphemous enthusiasts the world ever 
saw." 

Fourth. The Franciscans were founded by the companion of the last named fana- 
tic, and was personally more of a fanatic than St. Dominick. St. Bonaventure 
declared on oath that Christ revealed it to him, that by "the angel ascending out of 
the east, having the seal of the hving God," St. John meant no other than Sr. 
Francis. And this is the audacious motto under his picture, and is appUed the same 
way, by pope Leo X. St. Francis " had no teacher but Christ ; and learned all by an 
immediate revelation." He also heard an instructive voice issuing from a crucifix. 
Even the pope had a revelation appro^^ng him, after he had been disposed to reject 
good St. Francis. Tliis revelation satisfied his holiness' mind ; and he approved of 
the order of the Franciscans. See Bonavent. Life of St. Francis, cap. iii. sec. 1,7. 
StillLng. p. 272. St. Bridget had solemn vision of him : namely, that the " Fran- 
ciscan rule was not comjwsedby the wisdom of men, but by God himself; nay that 
ever}" word in it was inspire! by the Holy Ghost." '• And this,"' says this Roman 
])rophetess, " is the case with all the religious orders.*' Bridginae Revel. L. 7 cap. 
20. p. 5.59, vol. 1. Still p. 273. 

Fifth. The Carmelites. Launoy, in his book " De Vis. Sim. Stocki. cap. 1." 
declares that Simon Stockius had a heavenly vision of the Virgin Mar}-, in which 
she imparts to him what was befitting respecting the branch of Mendicants called 
Carmelites. And such was the marvellous condescension of the Virgin Mar\-, that 
upon Simon's devout prayers to her, she appeared to him with the very habit and 
fasion of dress which she would have them wear. And what crowns the whole 
with a peculiar glory, she gave, says Launoy, a promise greater than any that her son 
Christ had ever given : namely, " that trhosoever died in that habit, should not perish 
in hell f' Precious garment ! Precious Carmehtism! 

Sixth. Even Jansenists had recourse to an attempt at the miraculous; but they 
only met with a prompt exposure, and a sad overthrow. See Mosheim V. 209 : 

Seventh. Jesuitism was founded and organized by a fanatic not surpassed by Moham- 
med, or even St. Francis. This was lynatiiis Loyola. He had been a soldier, and 
^^ lamed in battle. He was a most illiterate creature. But this did not stand in the 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 113 

way of visions and revelations. I shall copy a few specimens from the Roman 
catholic authors Maffeius, Ribadeneira, and Orlandino. St. Peter, say these writers, 
"■ appeared unto him before he was so far recovered as to be able to read." In a fit of 
zeal he made a solemn vow of himself to be a knight of the Virgin. He made this 
vow on his knees before her image. At that moment the room shook ; the window 
glasses were broken ; and a dreadful noise took place. "An argument," says Orlan- 
dino, with solemnity, " that the devil then took leave of him." A point of very ques- 
tionable uncertainty. It is more likely that the said personage was making an ingress* 
rather than an egress at this moment ; if we may judge from the future horrid con- 
vulsions of all Europe, by his pious followers, the Jesuits. Some time after this, the 
Virgin appeared with great glory about her, and her babe in her lap. What Virgin — 
by the way, — could this be ? And what babe ? Could the man, absolutely insane as 
he was, mean the glorified Redeemer, Jesus Christ? Ignatius was now fully clothed, 
on a model given by a divine trance. This fanatic had a long coat of hair cloth ; a 
bag of water in one hand ; a crab tree staff in the other ; he was girded with an iron 
girdle, bare headed ; with a wicker shoe on one foot; the other bare. He had a vision 
of Jesus Christ, and certain most wonderful communications. At another time he 
had " a vision of the Blessed Trinity, under a corporeal representation." In one 
trance he continued eight days ; during which, — blessed vision for the benefit, peace, 
and happiness of mankind; he saw the frame and model of the Society of Jesus, — 
says Orlando L. i. 28. In another trance he saw God the father commending St. 
Ignatius, (that is himself) to his Son Jesus Christ; who very kindly received him and 
said with a smile, "i will he favorable to thee at RomeP'' Ribadeneira was present at 
Rome, when this was told in a domestic conference of the grave fathers of Rome ; 
and he records it with all becoming and suitable gravity. See Butler's Lives of the 
Saints, Art. St. Ignat. vol. ii. p. 262. Dubl. edit. 

7th. The leading ceremonies and rites of Romanism are founded in sheer^ fanati- 
cism. That is to say, these gradually crept in by designing men, as we showed in 
Letter VIII ; but they were finally established, as articles of faith of the '* simple be- 
lievers," by visions and miraculous displays. For instance : — 

Istly. The making of the sign of the Cross is a grand characteristic of Popery. 
Miracles have followed this making of the sign of the cross. We have seen 
already, that a saint discovered poisoned drink by making the mystic sign over the 
vessel; and the poisoned cup flew into a thousand fragments. "St. Walthen was 
haunted at prayers by the devil, first, in the shape of a wiot^se," — I am quoting gravely, 
gentlemen, from your Acta Sanct. 3 Aug, Tom. i. — "then in the form of a pig, a 
barking dog ; then a ivolf; and lastly of a roaring long horned lull!'" But upon his 
making the sign of the Cross, all comfortably vanished in a trice. See Finch 
p. 415. Acta Sanct. Aug. 3. Tom. i. 264. 

2dly. Purgatory was a doctrine hard to be established; it cost many a vision, 
many a dream, many a fanatical revelation. Witness St. Gregory's revelation, deliver- 
ing the soul of Trajan from the fires thereof. St. Benedict saw the soul of Gcrmanws 
escape out of it, and reach heaven. St. Ignatius saw tlie soul of Ilosias, one of tho 
Jesuits, escape, and get to glory, a tough job! — MatF. Lib. 2. cap. 12. Slill. p. 323. 
St. Bridget had a revelation to the same {)arport with lliat of St. Gregory : as certified 
hy Salmer. Dis^^). 27. and Baron. Annal. 604. N. 59. St. Muihildis also was success- 
ful this way. See Bellarm. Dc INirgat. 1. 2. cap. 8. Stilling. 251. 

3UIy. Bellarminc in a very gallant manner proves Auricular CoJifcssion, by a ccr- 



11-1 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

tain vision of a tall and terribly fierce man, with a book in his hand, who blotted out 
instantly, all the sins which the humble thief confessed to the priest, upon his knees/' 
Bell. De Pocnit. 1. 3. cap. 12. Stilling, p. 252. 

4thly. It will puzzle any of our priests to name one saint, or saintess, who has been 
beatified, and canonized, without the evidence of an apparition, a vision, a revelation, 
or a miracle, sufficient to satisfy his Holiness's conscience, in conferring the ghostly 
honor ! In proof of this, just let any one turn up Butlers Lives of the Saints ; and 
he will see on almost every page, the clearest evidence of what we now assert. 

5thly. The feast of the apparition of the Archangel Michael, is constantly obsened 
at Rome with extraordinar}' Romish devotion. This was originated, and established 
to the "simple faithful" by a revelation vouchsafed to the Bishop of Sponto, and a 
vision seen at the same time by a few drovers on the mountain Garganus. See Legat. 
De concep. Y. 3Iar. sect. 3. p. 371. Stillingfleet, p. 2.53, 2.56. — Rom. Brev. May 8. 

Cthly. The long and troublesome controversy touching Easter Day was conve- 
niently and quietl}^ settled, in the Roman church, bj^ a revelation kindly granted by 
some invisible agent, or other, to Hermes. See Legat. De concept. &c. ul upra. 

7thl3% The festival of Corpus Christi was instituted by Pope Urban IV. in order 
to confound all gainsayers against Transuhstantiation arid the Mass. Tliis famous 
festival was originated hj a revelation granted by some being, or other, to Mother 
Juliana, of immortal memory- with you, gentlemen. This same Mother Juliana Wcis 
no common crone. I shall quote from your writer Bzo\'ius Annal. Tom. 13. Anno. 
1230. N. 16 ; and Still, p. 254. " She had raptures, exstacies, and prophecies." She 
was so sharp at discerning things invisible, that she knew people's thoughts : " She 
wrestled with devils, discoursed with apostles, and \^TOught many miracles." In all 
her visions, she ever and anon saw the full moon, " trith a snip taken from her round- 
ness."^ For t^venty years she MTestled with the invisible powers, with all the charac- 
teristic curiositj'of a female, to discover what this same "s/2?/>" could possibly typify. 
This vision she revealed to De Lausanna,- who told it to De Trecis, who was after- 
wards Pope Urban IV. All could not discover what this same "57i?p" on the moon's 
circular edge indicated. It was something involving the interests of "Holy Mother 
Church." Of this mother Juliana was most sure : but stUl what that was, — she could 
not read from her mystic lore. But two prophetesses can make marvellous discave- 
ries. Mother Isabella came, apropos, to her aid. She too had a vision. And say Dies- 
temius, and Binius, — " This Isabella was so much intoxicated by her vision, that, out 
of the abundance of her spiritual drunkenness" (these are the Roman writer's own 
words.) "she declared that she would promote the Holy Feast, although the whole 
world should oppose her." This same feast of Corpus Christi, and solemn proces- 
sion of the "Bread made god," through the streets, with "devout ruffians" in front, 
with carbines, to knock down all who refused the new breaden god, — the Creator, 
created by the priest, in the Mass, — this same feast was mother Juliana's "snip" iu 
the edge of the moon. This holy festival being instituted, the moon ivas henceforth 
round as a perfect circle, and all is complete ! Such is the edifying origin of Corpus 
Christi! How much you owe to Mother Juliana, and the moon's snip; and the 
simple devotion of Urban IV. In addition to Bzovius, see Diestemius Blarus, 
Arnoldus Bostius, Petr. Pra^monstratensis, Vignier, and Molanus. Also Still, p. 
25o, 257. 

Lastly; indulge me in one instance more. Your sanctum sanctorum, and un- 
matched peculiarity of the Mass, was established by fanatical revelations. This 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 115 

precious morsel of Romish fanaticism, shall claim our attention in due time. At 
present I allude to the wild fanaticism by which it was established, gradually as an 
article of faith of the " faithful." This corner stone of Popery had a prodigious variety 
of revelations and miracles to establish it. I shall select an instance or two. 

BcHarmine De Sacr. Euchar. Lib. 3. cap. 8. narrates several miracles. In one 
instance, says he, iastead of bread, real flesh was seen; that is to say, the loaf, or 
wafers, were converted not invisibly, as now a days, by half a miracle with you; but 
visibly, and really, and truly, — iirto true flesh ! He does not say whether human or 
bestial flesh. In another instance, says he, instead of the wafer, Christ was seen, 
bona fide, "in the form of a child." But why a child, it is impossible for us heretics 
even to conjecture. They cannot mean our glorified Lord. Roman priests only 
can explain this mystery of popery. 

But all these are comparatively trivial affairs to the devotion and faith of a heretic's 
horse ! Miserable heretics are all Protestants, when even a horse bows doAvn and 
adores "the breaden god." I quote this from no less a man than your own Bellar- 
mine, who solemnly relates it as sober history in hi^ book De Sac. Euchar. Lib. 3 
caj). 8. St. Anthony of Padua, had once an encounter with a heretic, an Albigensian, 
touching the change of the wafer into Christ's flesh. "1 have a horse," says the 
heretic, — "to whom I shall give nothing for three daj^s. On the third day do you 
come with the Host; and I shall come with the horse. I shall pour out some corn to 
him ; but if he forsake his corn, and go and venerate the Host, then shall I believe." 
On the day appointed all the parties came. And St. Anthony in a truly saint like 
manner, addressed a suitable and eloquent word of exhortation to the horse. 

" In the virtue, and in the name of thy Creator, whom I truly hold in my hand," 
says he,-— "I conimand and enjoin thee, O horse, to come, and with humilit}', revere 
him." " No sooner Avere the words uttered," says the grave Bellarmine, " than the 
horse unmindful of his corn hastens towards the Host, in the priest's hand ; inclining 
his head, and devoutly kneeling on his fore feet, he adored his Lord in the best manner 
he could, and confuted the heretic." See also Finch p. 343. 

This really crowns the loftiest climax of all the specimens of fanaticism extant. 
A priest creating his Creator out of bread. A horse sensibly listening to an exhort- 
ation. A horse devoutly bowing down on his knees, and worshipping his maker, in a 
bit of wafer. And what is most amazmg of all,-^a priest, — a rational being believing 
all this. I am, gentlemen, yours, &c. 

June 4, 1833. W. B. C. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER X. 

It opens with a descant on the cares, troubles, and disasters of Hfe, with some sontinion- 
talism about one's risijig above them. " But in mental collisions, defeat is followed by the 
worm that never dies !" 

It is, therefore, with the priest, a very serious matter to engage in polemics ; it is vic- 
tory, — or no less than perdition ! 

" Dr. B.'s defeat is obvious; it is admitted even by the most prejudiced among the ditc 
of his flock! Hence his acerbity of temper, and his recklessness of truth ! Our Victory 
over you excites no stirrings of vanity, for it has been too easily won ! This is not writ- 
ten in the way of boast ! Some concession must be made to the irritability of a niiud 



116 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

writhing under the torturing vexation of defeat — so as to cause forgetfulness of your stai- 
tion, — as an interpreter of the Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost!'' 

'* Do you believe the tales of which your last letter is formed to be any portion of Catho- 
lic creed? Do you imagine Catholics will admit your malignant fictions, while they mock 
and reject the dreamy legends of the visionary among their own silly writers?" 

" Your rule of faith, your " matter o£ infinite importance," is abandoned. Your theme 
now is farcical carricature of Catholic doctrine." 

" We claim the protection of the great Dr. Johnson, who says : ' The diversion ofbaiting 
an author has the sanction of all ages and nations, and is more lawful than the sport of teas- 
ing other animals, because for the most part, he comes voluntary to the stake.' You came 
voluntary to the stake. '^ 

" ' The Bible alone,' the preacher says, ' is the rule of faith of every Protestant.' 
He believes, as an article of faith, the inspiration of the Bible, but this inspiration cannot 
be proved from the Bible, therefore, he admits an article of faith not derived from the Bible : 
therefore, the Bible alo7ie is not his only rule of faith ; therefore, he contradicts himself ; 
and, therefore, the Bible alone is not a sufficient guide to a future world. This has not 
been refuted." 

Nota : — Every one must perceive that this often repeated objection against the only rule 
of faith, is founded in a play upon the double sense in which the word faith is taken in holy 
writ. Jude says : " earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints ; ver. 3. 
Here faith signifies the system of gospel doctrines. Again : "we are justfied by faith." 
Here it means the exercise of the soul, by which we receive Christ Jesus, and walk in 
him. 

But the priests, by reason of their defective education, confound these two. We say, 
" the scriptures are the only and perfect rule of faith." That is, it contains in it every thing 
-necessary to be known and believed, for our salvation. But, then, that faith, by which we re- 
ceive these doctrines, and all the evidence of them, is not in the Bible ; it is in the mind of 
the believer, like every other mental act. Yet the priests, in the most ludicrous manner, 
insist that unless ''• mental faith'''' be found " in the Bible's system offaith,'^ the scriptures can- 
not be the only rule' of faith I 

Next follows the endless repetitions about Luther ; and the rejected epistle of James ; 
and the loss of some twenty books of scripture; and about John Wesley ; and the tradi- 
tions; and the genuine copy of the fathers ; and the change of the Sabbath ; and the 
utter failure of Dr. B.'s proof of the rule; and his Nestorianism ; and his blasphemy in 
denying that the icoyyian Mary is the mother of God '. 

" From the scriptures themselves it is not difficult to prove that they cannot be the Judge 
of controversy. Common sense tells us, we must distinguish between the letter of the 
scriptures, and the sense of the scriptures. St. Paul, 2 Cor. iii. 6, marks this distinction, 
' the letter,' says the apostle, ''killeth, but the spirit quickeneth." 

'• Rev. Sir, we say that the scriptures, if we regard the bare letter, cannot possibly be 
the judge of controversies. We also say, the scripture, even if we regard its meaning, 
cannot be the judge of controversy ; and we call on the christian public to mark our proofs 
of these assertions, and the delusion you labor under, in holding the scriptures to be 
" your only rule of faith and judge of controversy.' That the scriptures cannot be our 
judge of controversy, if we regard the bare letter is thus proved. That which leads men 
into heresy and error, cannot be the infallible judge of all controversies; but the scriptures, 
if we respect its bare letter, leads men into error and heresy, therefore, it cannot be the 
infallible judge of controversies. The major proposition of this syllogism is self evident. 
The minor is proved by the words of St. Paul, ' the letter killeth,' as much as to say it 
ieadeth us into error." " The letter killed" the Jews; and it " killed the heretics." 

Notes : — 1. Here is another painful instance of our priests very defective education- By 
"the letter that killeth,'' they actually mean the scriptures taken literally ! Need I say that 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 117 

" the letter that killetK'' is the law and broken covenant uttering its curse, including the bur- 
dens and curses of the legal dispensation of Moses, which is now done away? And it is 
contrasted with "the spirit that giveth life," that is, the gospel dispensation. Hence, in 
reasoning against the holy scriptures from this text of'' the letter,''^ the priests really leave 
out all the gospel of Christ from our rule! 

2. They assort that " the scripture," — in other words, the Holy Ghost speaking in it, — • 
" leads into error and hevf sy !" 

3. they charge upon the Bible, and upon the Holy Ghost, all the sin, perverseness, and 
heresy of the wicked children of men. That is, because the blind man cannot see, — there- 
fore, the clear shining sun is in fault ; because the mechanic, when intoxicated, cannot 
use with skill, the correct instruments of his craft, therefore, the error and consequent 
mischief are owing, entirely, to the instruments, and to him who made them perfect I 

4. The sentence of God's law uttered on us is "iAe letter that killeth." See Rom. VH. 9. 
This sentence of God on guilty sinners, the priests say, is " as much as to say that it leads 
us into error" ! That is, when the law " kills" the murderer ; and the judge utters its sen- 
tence on him, it is as ranch as to say, thei/ lead him into error ! 

5. They maintain that " even if we regard its meaning," — that is, even if we take up its 
spirit, and hear correctly the Holy Ghost speaking unto us, — "it is still not our rule" !• 
This is the consummation of deism, and its necessary consequence, heaven-daring impiety* 
And it is not simply a mistake of our priests personally. It is originated necessarily by 
the essential doctrines of popery. But we go on 

" The Scriptures are often obscure and hard to be understood. Out of this obscurity 
many controversies arise as to their true meaning. There must be some judge to deter- 
mine their true meaning." 

*' But common sense tells us, this judge must be distinct from the Scriptures, for the 
Scripture itself, which is obscure, cannot determine its own meaning. To deny that the 
Scriptures are obscure and hard to be understood, would, Rev. Sir, ♦ argue a derangement 
in the moral faculty :' in truth, it would argue more, it would savor of infidelity. It 
would certainly be unscriptural, after Saint Peter telling us, that in the epistles of Saint 
Paul, there were ' many things hard to be understood.' Now, Rev. Doctor, we humbly 
submit, that whatever is ' hard to be understood is obseure.'" 

Then they adduce instances of their obscurity : from their mayiner^ and from their matter : 
" they are full of figures, allegories, and parallels:" "there are prophetical passages : and 
many apparent contradictions." ' Hence the Bible is a very obscure book :' and common 
sense tells us, that a judge, whose decisions are so obscure as to leave room for controversy, 
is extremely unfit for his office. We are convinced that such a judge would never be 
appointed, or sanctioned by our Divine and All-wise Legislator." 

" Finally, they arrived at this conclusion : — ' You have no Scripture for the canonicity 
of the Scriptures ; therefore, you cannot believe the Scriptures to be canonical: there- 
fore your Rule of Faith leads to downright Deism,' " 

Notes : — 1. Here men's folly and guilt, " who refuse to be taught," are wholly palliated-; 
and the entire blame rolled over on the unoffending Bible. "The unlearned and unstables 
are those whom the apostle marks as " wresters," of the scriptures : and the originators 
of error. Yet, instead of bringing "the unlearned" into the correcting influence of the 
true learning ; instead of bringing "the unstable" under the hallowing restraints of sound 
mental, and christian discipline, they cry out against the Holy Bible, — ^'- Jirny with it .' 
Away with it ! Not this, hut Barabhas for our judge ! Crucify it ! Crucify it ! It originates all 
controversies, errors, and heresies ! 

2. They studiously keep out of view the doctrine which we have taken pains, distinctly 
and often, to state ; namely, that the Holy Ghost speaking in the Bible is the only 
JUDGE of controversy. And the Scriptures are as distinct from this judge, as a word from 
its speaker, Now, can ho bo a christi^in man ar^d hovo tho foar of liio Holy Ghost before 



lis KOMA_N CATHOLIC CO'TROVERST. 

his eyes, who ventures in the face of heaven, to say that the Holy One who " leads us into 
all truth," cannot determine his own meaning; cannot convey clearly his own mind and 
will, by his own inspired word?" If controversy arise, is it the fault of the Holy One, or 
the perverse will of impious men ? If men wander deliberately into error, is it not because 
the sons of darkness hate the holy light of heaven, and choose the guidance of corrupt 
reason ? If men do not see, and do not understand, is the Bible, is the Holy Ghost under 
any bond of obligation to furnish eyes, and brains to rebels perpetrating high treason 
against Heaven ? 

No intelligent and candid Protestant or Roman catholic, has ever complained of the 
obscurity of the Bible's doctrines of salvation. And all the world knows that if the 
Uomish priests could find popery in the Bible, it would instantly become one of the plain- 
est and most luminous books in the world ! 

3. They are here chargeable with a characteristic imposition. Because St. Peter saya 
that in the epistles of St. Paul, there are some things hard to be understood, they forthwith 
convert the word some into many, and thence conclude that all the Scriptures are hard 
to be understood ! And, finally, they misrepresent the meaning of the whole passage. 
" Some things are hard, but, by no means ijiipossihle to be understood. 

4. The priests bring '■'• a railing accusation" against heaven itself! " A judge, — that is 
the Holy Spirit speaking in the word of God, — "whose decisions are so obscure as to 
leave room for controversy is extremely unfit for his office I Such a judge," — that is the 
Holy One, — " would never be appointed, nor sanctioned by our Legislator! I!" — I leave it 
to the decision of the christian world, whether Ihi? master-spirit of infidelity ever displayed 
raore impiety ; or Judas more treachery T or Rabshakeh more blasphemy, than our priests 
have done in these extracts N And, 1 repeat it, — it is not their personal fault : they act 
perfectly in character: it proceeds from the natural genius, and essential doctrines of 
Popery ! 

There follows next a quotation from the popish catechism, steeped in deism. This 
exhibits what is administered lo the?e young immortals, instead of the pure waters of life. 
3Iay Jesus Christ pres3rve these children from such soul-destroying doctrines, as are in- 
stilled into their minds by their ••' spiritual teachers," and infidel catechisms ! 

The Letter, next, details some of the protestant miracles: such as, a marvellous growth 
of hair on a person's head, during ni^ht, narrated by Dr. Adam Clark : next, the case of 
Mary Toft, whom our priests grave.y represent as "bringing forth rabbits:"' of Johanna 
Southcote, whom the priests endorse as the icoiild-he mother o? Messiah : and finally, of cer- 
tain Irish ghosts, who danced on the waters at Poriatown Bridge: and which, no doubt 
existed, — but only in the guilty and tortured consciences of their popish assassinators I 

The Letter is closed with these words : — " Such things," namely, these Protestant mira- 
cles, — " as well as your rule of faith, have origin at ed,"-^th at is the holy scriptures, and 
the Holy One speaking to us in them, — ''^ have originated in sheer fanaticism, and hareheen 
sustained hy imposture !'^ This carries with it, its own refutation ; and proclaims in ever y 
one's ear, the origin, and nature of popery. 



LETTER X. 

TO DOCTORS rOWER, VAREI^\, AXD MR. LEVINS. 

•' Tria faciunt bonum, &c. Three things make a good monk and nun; to speak well of 
the superior ; to read the Breviary as much and as often as they choose : and to let things 
go on just as they please." — " There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their 
own lusts." — St' Peter. 

Gentlemen : — By the detail of extracts, in my last letter, I established the fact, that 



ROMAN CAtHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 119 

)^our peculiar ceremonies are based in fanaticism: and that your whole system was 
founded by some of the wildest fanatics, the world ever saw. These extracts I copied 
from your own standard works, such as Acta Sanctorum, Butler's Lives, &c. You 
have not denied the truth of one of these extracts ; and you cannot. I invite you to 
try your logic at a refutation of them. It was supremely silly, gentlemen, to pass the 
whole over, as you did, in your last letter, with this Jesuitical question: — "Do you 
imagine catholics will admit your malignant fictions, while they mock, and reject the 
dreamy legends of the visionary among their own silly writers .^" 

Let your bishop look to this daring avowal. Popes have sent tens of thousands to 
the stake, and gibbet, for things of a great deal less consequence than this wicked 
taunt on the Pope, and Holy Mother. Why, gentlemen, you pronounce Acta Sancto- 
rum, — your achievements of your saints, their miracles, and holy tales, to be dreamy 
legends! You call your popes, and the various orders of your monks, "sz'ZZt/ and 
visionary writers P^ Nay, have we lived to hear the concessions ! The whole evidence 
on which your popes gravely proceed in the mysteries of canonization, to manufac- 
ture new saints, and new gods, for Roman worship, — you actually denounce as wild 
and " dreamy legends." 

Permit me, gentlemen, to congratulate you on this approximation to the light. 
Even Mr. L. I shall not despair of: protestant light, and logic have wrought wonders 
on better men, in compelling them to speak the truth. If Balaam's ass spoke after 
being well cudgelled, why may not even he have his mouth opened, in the sei'vice of 
truth, by a logical flagellation? 

You repeat your slanders of Luther, *'the Great and the Good." I have only 
room for tioo remarks here. Every scholar knows that Luther, when more illumined 
from monkish ignorance, did admit the epistle of St. James into the canon. It stands 
in Luther's German Bible, and if you will consult Woolfii Curas, Philol, vol. v. 6. 
and also Fabricius Biblioth. Grffic. Lib. iv. cap. 5. sec. 9. you can see your evidence 
of your slander of Luther. My other remark is this : — Gentlemen, look nearer home. 
The Roman church, in the 4th century denied the canonicity of the Eyistle to the 
Hebrews! St. Jerome tells you this. See his Treatise of illustrious men, cap. 59, 
and his Epistle 53 to Paulinus. The Roman church stood out long against " the He- 
brews:" but she was finally "cudgelled" by the Greek church into orthodoxy, on the 
canon, so far as it respects "the epistle to the Hebrews." 

You say a good deal in your last, about "the stake ;" and "my coming volun- 
tarily up to YOUR STAKE." I know that your spirit always leads that way. And 
even to-morrow, had your charitable and liberal sect the ascendency, you would plant 
the stakes, and light up the Smithfield fires in our Park. I know it, and you know 
it : and even now anticipate it. But may God in his rich mercy, preserve the Lord's 
church ; and our happy Republic, from the conspiracy of the Jesuits. 

I quoted a fair specimen of your miracles, behoved, and by your own Popes, duly 
registered at the " Office of Miracles at Rome,'^ by your knavish compeers. You 
reply to this proof of Romish fanaticism by a hull and frog story from " Adam 
Clark," about a natural phenomenon, a wonderful groivth of a looman's hair ! 

You quote the case of Toft, and Johanna Southcote. Is it not marvellous that you 
should not know that these fanatics borrowed their entire system from your own 
Taukrus, and Cressy ! But, here is a point we wish to notice. Wluni fanatics sprung 
up among Protestants, wc cast them out, and disown them. But when they a])pear in 
*' Holy Mother," she sings hosannas to them, and enrolls them among her saints ! 



120 ROMA-V CATHOLIC CONTROVERSt. 

Now, gentlemen, I go on to other points. You are pleased to repeat in aluicat 
ever}' Letter, that I do not adhere to the subject of discussion — " the Rule." 

Now, so far is your charge from being true, that I have, in fact, thus far, been fortu- 
nate enough in observing the strictest unity in my discussions. In your first note, 
you simply asked me " to state our rule of faith, and our judge of controversy." I 
complied with this, by stating that our rule of faith is the holy scriptures ; and that 
the judge of controversy is Almighty God, speaking plainly and clearly to us in them. 
I did not stop here, although this was all you demanded : — I next brought forward the 
proof, that the scriptures were the only and sufficient rule : I showed this from 
external evidence, and internal : I showed it from various passages, that God speaking 
to us, in the Bible, declared it to be his own word ; and pronounced it perfect and 
sufficient. 

I next endeavored to draw you out in defence of your rule! You carefully guarded 
against this. You know you cannot prove your rule of faith by tlie present authority, 
and infallibility of your Church. And I give you the credit of a shrewd and well 
conceived retreat. But is not your silence ominous ? Are you not betraying a con- 
sciousness that 3^our clumsy Rule, contained in so many fohos, is utterly untenable, 
utterly indefensible ? You can never prove that Christ delivered to us, by di^^Ile in- 
spiration, the apocr}-pha, and unwritten tradition, and the unanimous consent of the 
Fathers. You can never create a paradise out of this continent of mud I In the 
midst of vour awkward flounderings in this matter, I succeed in drawing 3-0U into 
your " A-icious circle :" and I fully con%T.cted you of your Romish sophistr}', by which 
you impose on simple and uneducated partizans. You first proved " Holy 3Iother 
Church" from certain marks taken from the Bible : then you established the inspira- 
tion and autliority of the Bible, from your " Mother Church I" And the same sophis: 
tr\' and " vicious circle" appear also in your doctrine of tradition. 

You found it necessary- to attempt the proof of two things here : namely, that these 
traditions did come from Christ's lips: and that the chain has been faithfully kept 
unbroken. But no man can, while in his senses, beUeve without evidence ; and no 
man has evidence unless he be well acquainted with all the dead, and with all the 
living, who had this chain of tradition, in their keeping. It is entirely different from 
that which is written down in ten thousand copies, every where received and read. 
Those traditions floated down on the tongue, by hearsay evidence. Unless we know 
the truth and fidelitA,- of all the dead, and of all the hving, who did and still do hand 
them down, it were an insult on common sense, to ask us to believe these traditions I 

How do you get over this impossibility ? ^Vhy, by plunging still deeper into absurd- 
ities. For instance, first, \-ou resort to the unanimous consent of the fathers, and lay 
down this maxim, that what has this unanimous consent is true tradition ; what has 
it not, is to be rejected. Now, 3-ou load yourselves here ^ith a task which, as 
we showed, no uninspired man can achieve. To estabhsh this unanimous consent 
you must produce an authenticated copy of the fathers, free of all additions and 
alterations. And you must demonstrate the fact of this. You must, then, go over 
all their thirty-five enormous folios ; exhibit their 40,000 pages to the public, and 
■prove infallibly^ that there is no error, and no contradiction, or one doubtful sentiment 
in one oftheiE.: but an unanimous consent to all vour peculiarities cf poperj^ How 
many miUions -of such men as Dr. Power, and Mr. Le\'ins, would it take, with the 
aid of Dr. Varela, to do this, think you? — No tongue can tell ! 

But, gentlemen, the settlement of this point, is simple and easy on our part. For 



510MAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 121 

while you are put upon proving a negative, we have the easy task of proving an affirm- 
ative. I have done it in my Letter VIII., I selected ten of your essential peculi- 
arities of popery ; and then adduced from six to seventeen of the best of the fathers, 
who are clearly against each of your peculiarities. It is of no consequence to us 
whether your fathers' volumes be authentic or not. And thus, by the simplest pro- 
cess, your unanimous consent to your system, has been utterly demolished. No man, 
in his senses, none but a Jesuit, which is the classic English word for a knave, will 
venture to affirm that there is any such thing as a unanimous consent of the Greek and 
Roman fathers. There is an universal contradiction on their part ; both among them- 
selves, and against all the essentials of popery. 

But second^ you all saw this evil, and to remedy it you have invented the wild and 
extravagant fanaticism of infallibility. And you affirm, with solemn grimace, 
that "the Church," — meaning the Roman priests, — " know these traditions by her 
INFALLIBILITY." Now, mark your sophistry and vicious circle. Who has a right 
to decide on these traditions, and this infallibility ! "Why, the Church to be sure," 
say you: "that is to say, the Romish priests." You stand forward with no other 
power and authority than that which is derived from tradition and infallibility : and 
by virtue of this said power, from unproved tradition, and unproved infallibility, 
you decide formally that these traditions and this infallibility are from God our Sa- 
vior ! You borrow from these uninspired novelties, all your power and authority of 
office : and then by this official power, you prove tradition and infallibility divine ! I 

These arguments of yours, are the entire corner stone of your ancient tottering edi- 
fice, — already tumbling about your ears, — for, blessed be God, the 1260 j^earsof "the 
Beast's" reign are now verging nearly toward their close. This is the only and 
entire idea which you have advanced, stript as it has been, of all your verbiage, coarse 
wit, and blasphemy ? 

But, I did not stop here : your rule I next attacked, and logically demolished b}- 
TEN arguments. That was no great task : and there was no great honor in doing it, I 
frankly admit. But these ten arguments have not to this day been touched, far 
less refuted by you. Thus far, then, was there not perfect unity in my discussion ? T 
next devoted Letters VI. and VII. to the refutation of various objections which your 
zeal had collected, against the holy Bible, our rule of faith. And ^'"ou now stand con- 
victed of the deism of the Voltaire school ; in the estimation of every chris ian, and 
of every sensible deist in the community ? To accomplish this, and strip the vizor 
off your face before an indignant community, was, I repeat it, one main object of my 
lingering so long on the rule. 

In Letter VIII, I showed that, in abandoning the word of God, as the onlv rule, 
you have apostatized from pure Christianity; and erected a perfectly novel svstem in 
its stead. In letter IX., I endeavored to follow out this argument. I exhibited a col- 
lection of historical documents, to demonstrate the appalling result of your apostacy 
from the only rule of faith. I proved, from your own authentic books, that 
your leading doctrines, rites, and monkish orders were established in fimati- 
oism ! Is there no unity in all this discussion ? Has not the Master told us 
that, "by their fruits ye shall know them?" Have we not conducted our 
readers to the pure word of God, which, like the tree of life, bears all manner ot 
fruit; yielding its fruit and leaves, for the spiritual food, and healing of the nations? 
And have I not, amid your unmanly vituperations, been solemnly warning all men 
against an approach to your fatal tree of death, — more deadly than the tree of the 

12 



122 ROMA.'T CATHOLIC COZ^TROVERST. 

East, whose mortal influence poisons the air, and scatters on every hand wasting peSti^ 
ience and death ! 

I congratulate you on avowing, for once, the truth, namely, that there is no version of 
the scriptures in English, authorised by your pope, or Mother church. Your reply 
to my question on this subject was ^'TranseatP^ That is, " let that pass ;" meaning, 
thereby, to say, — " Our craft has failed, and betrayed us ; let us boldly make a virtue 
of necessity: every priest knows that " our Douay Bible,'^ is a sheer hoax on Protest- 
ants : our Irish superiors, indeed, once ventured by solemn testimony, to declare it 
'•' authorised by our superiors:'' but we all know their wise reasons for denying on 
oath, all this and even their own signatures, before the British parliament. Therefore 
'" transeat r ^^ — Gentlemen, I laud j'our candar. But, then, you have placed your 
Vicar general. Doctor Power, in a predicament in which no man of truth or honor can 
be found. You have '■'■pontiJicaUy,'' convicted him of a mean and scandalous impo- 
sition, and at the same time, of a shocking impiety. In Clinton Hall, in presence of 
the public, he lifted his hands towards heaven, and made a solemn appeal to Al- 
mighty God that he and his priestly associates, did zealously encourage the reading of 
the holy scriptures by the laity in their own vernacular ! And 3'et, there is, as you now 
admit, no authorised version of them in English ! I 

This is the second extraordinary admission which has been extorted from you. I 
allude to the avowal in your Letter I. that your religion, and that of the Protestants 
are not modifications of the one thing : that they are essentially distinct. You say, 
*• If the Catholics are right, your Reformation was superfluous and a rebellion against 
heaven. If you hold the truth, the chief part of catholic worship is not only errone- 
ous, but idolatrous; an offence against heaven, &c." I thank you for this admission 
in the face of the American people, and I trust it will never be forgotten by the reading 
and reflecting community. AVe are as opposite as Christ and Belial ! And by this 
last admission, you have doomed your own rule ; in as much as it proves that this part 
of it, namely, the holy scriptures, and also the apocrypha, are utterly inaccessible 
to many of 3'our priests, and to the great body of the laity. And when we take into 
consideration the fact that the unanimous consent of the Fathers does not exist; and 
its proof by you will live and die in the land of promise ; most manifest is it, now, if 
any doubt did, heretofore, remain, that your rule is by your infatuated admission, de- 
fective, intangible, false, and utterly useless, and nullified! You have no rule of faith 
from heaven! ! And, hence, as in all usual processes of nature ; — for monsters beget 
monsters, — 3-ourrule, originated by the prince of darkness, naturally begets apostacies, 
the novel sect of Romanism with all its putrifying mass of fanaticism, and supersti- 
tions, and idolatries ; — unparalleled in the moral history of our fallen race ! 

In my last Letter, I drew the public attention to some of the proofs of this. I beg 
leave to devote another letter to it. Be pleased then, gentlemen, to follow me in the 
pleasing task ! 

" From the sublime to the ridiculous, there is only a single step," said Napoleon in 
his fatal fall. In the irrevocable fall of the Romish church, she has united the most 
lofty and daring in claims of power and homage, to the most fantastic, ludicrous, 
mean, and base in imposture, and degrading in action ! The illustration of this will 
leach us the appalling consequences of abandoning the only guide and rule, as the 
" Romish anomos, the lawless One'' has done. 

t. This "Lawless One" has set up claims on the human conscience, which place 
iit defiance, all sober conceptions. The Romish priesthood grasp the reins of unbound- 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 123 

©d ghostly power over their votaries, the deluded people. Without a special written 
license from the priest, no man, or woman, dare read the holy Bible, — even admit- 
ting that there were an authorized version within their reach. That is to say, — God is 
not allowed, without sacerdotal permission, to speak to his own subjects ! And men, 
who have to account unto God, each for himself, and not by proxy, are not allowed with- 
out a polluted and usurping priest's permission, to hear God speaking unto them. The 
Romish church tells Almighty God, that he shall not be heard, but through a priest's 
lips ; and even as that priest shall choose ! The Romish church tells the Almighty, 
that the priest shall explain his divine will, just as the priest, — ignorant, incontinent, 
and vicious as he is, — shall be pleased ; that God is not the lord of the conscience ; 
that the priest has a right to dictate to man all that God only has a right to say : that 
the priest opens heaven ; that he opens, and shuts up in purgatory; and in hell; that 
though Christ commands " to come without money and without price,^^ the priest and 
Mother church tell the Almighty that, they shall pay their money, and give the priest 
his price of the mass ! that though Christ has "the keys of hell and death," and sets 
his people all free, the pope and his priestlings reply to the Most High, — "Now, thou 
shalt not wear the keys of hell and of death : I demand them of thee ; because certain 
popes dreamed a dream, and told us that St. Peter got them from thee, — thou shalt not 
have them? Besides, no man shall have freedom from the yoke of bondage, nor have 
their souls emancipated from purgatory until we shall obtain all the gold and silver 
from them which we can extract!" This is the mandate issued from your throne of 
Mammon ! ! 

Hence, Christ and his atonement are excluded : the idol is set up in its place ; 
human merit, gold and silver, occupy the place of his unspotted righteousness ; holy 
water, penance, and ghostly absolution occupy the place which the Holy Spirit occu- 
pies in his own church. The only object of divine worship is now lost sight of, in the 
confounding and bewildering multiplicity of created gods and goddesses ! The Vir- 
gin Mary is the queen of heaven: she is, O horrible ! " the mother of God P^ and her 
mother, Saint Anna, is of course " the grandmothef of God /" 

The Virgin has more prayers offered up to her by your well educated devotees, than 
what Christ has ; as every one knows who is acquainted with female Roman catho- 
lics. And each new saint, added for money, and by some sublime catholic miracle, 
absorbs for, a season, all the worship. In the year 1171, for instance, there arose a 
new god. This was Thomas a Becket, an impious and haughty priest, the curse and 
scourge of his country; and a rebel against the laws of the land, and the authorit}'- of 
his lawful sovereign ; who also screened the vicious and criminal priests from the just 
visitation of outraged laws, and an insulted community. The haughty rebel was slain 
by some persons who felt indignant at his insults offered to the king and the laws. 

The court of Rome has never failed to take advantage of these feuds and national 
disturbances. It has never failed to sustain rebels against their sovereigns, providing 
it could reap any possible advantages to ghostly power. And the pope has never failed 
to enrol in his holy calendar as right worshipful snints, those who fell in rebellion 
againstking and country, to help on popery. Accordingly this English rebel was duly 
canonized. In a short time a magnijicent altar was erected to him in his catliedral, 
near those of Christ, and " the holy mother of God !" One main use of altars in our 
priests' mass houses, is, by the way, to receive the needful, namely, the money! The 
holy priest must not handle it: he needs no money; holy man ! his whole soul is in 
h^aveja ! The altar receives the money ; it is given, — not to the priests, — O, no — it is 



124 ROMAir CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

given to God and the saints! Well, the amount of gold and silver piled up on th^r 
altar is the clearest and best evidence which of the saints gets the most devotion ! 
During the young honors of the new god, the accounts stood thus: On Christ's altar 
£3, on that of the dead priest, £832! Next year — this priest eclipsed Christ and 
"the mother of God;" accounts stood at more fearful odds! On Christ's altar. 
£0 : — nothing! not one copper farthing, and hence no prayers to him ! On the altar 
of Mary were laid £4. 1. 8. On that of the wretched dead priest, £954. 6. 4. ! 

The Roman pontitTs are invested with different degrees of power by the four grand 
factions existing in the bosom of " undivided Mother Church," The first makes him 
merely a president: the second, an absolute monarch: the third makes him equal to 
God, and calls him "our God," "the Lord God, the pope :" "our God on earth:" 
"none," says St. Bernard, (1725) "but God is like unto the pope, either in heaven 
or in earth." Edgar's Variations of popery, p. 158. The fourth faction makes the 
pope superior to God. "He has the plenitude of power, and is above law." Gibert 
ii. 103. Bellarmine, De Pontif. IV. 5, declares tliat he can bind the church to believe 
that virtue is ^-ice : and \'ice is virtue. — " Possumus, &c. We can dispense with law." 
See the Decret. Gregor. III. 8, IV. "The pope (Leo X.) has power above all 
powers in heaven and in earth." See Labb. Concil. vol. 19. 924. Edgar, p. 161. 

This is the grand practical doctrine exercised with such tremendous mischief at the 
confessional. Such power is lodged with the priest that he can make sin no sin ; and 
vice laudable, if committed to oblige and favor the priest. " If you sin with me, and 
comply with my will" sa^^s the holy man possessing a chip of the pope's infallible 
power, — " I -will absolve \^ou, after we are done I" " I will absolve you, for a trifle, — 
said a holy priest to a lady of my acquaintance of the North Dutch Church, when he 
was urging her to play cards and gamble, on a sabbath afternoon, on board of the 
})acket. 

In virtue of this unlimited power, the pope and his Jesuits claim authority over the 
bodies and souls of all men : and over all their property-, — be they Romans or Protest- 
ants ! Does any man possess such feeble conceptions of the nature and spirit of the 
apocalyptic " Beast," as to imagine that the Protestants' apostacy and heresy have 
put them beyond the pope's power and claims? No: he claims dominion over every 
Protestant as much as ever. 

He claims power, also over all governments, in all kingdoms, and in all republics, 
be they Protestant or Roman catholic. My credulous fellow citizens will not believe 
this. But tliey must allow me to say that this credulity proceeds from the success 
with which the crafty Jesuits have blinded our eyes, and palmed on us a system, as 
their system, which every priest knows to be ridiculous and false. I speak not of the 
enUghtened and truly patriotic Roman catholics, who have seen through the mask 
of ghostly hypocrisy. I speak of the Roman Jesuitical system, with the pope at the 
head of it. " It is a thing most manifest," says a Romish author, Tesora Politico, &c. 
1602, p. 20. — "That his holiness has universal power over all: not only in his own 
states, but those of other princes, and in all the world, &c." And Bellai-mine De 
Pont. Lib. V. cap. 6, teaches that "the pope has the chief power of disposing of the 
temporal affairs of all christians, in order to their spiritual good." Yes, for their spirit- 
val good ! Riches and scripture doctrines corrupt men. And, therefore, for man's 
spiritual good, the priests take away the money and the Bible : and bum the body, for 
the soul's spiritual good ! And all the world has read the saying of pope Innocent IIL 
" The Church, my spouse, is not married to me without bringing me something : she 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 125 

bas given me a dowry of a price beyond all price, — the plenitude of spiritual things ; 
mnd the extent of temporal things !" " The pope," said a council with Gregory VII. 
at its heati, "ought to be called the universal bishop; he alone ought to wear the 
tokens of imperial dignity ; all princes ought to kiss his feet ; he has power to dethrone 
empires and kings; and is to be judged by none !" And Rome never amused herself 
with empty titles, as do the Persian and Chinese princes. They uttered their diabolical 
edicts in thunder ; and executed them with fire and blood ! They excommunicated 
kings ; deposed them from their thrones ; absolved subjects from their lawful alleg-i- 
ance ; moved nations to rebellion and blood shed ; abrogated national laws : put an 
end to commerce, and trade : turned once happy nations into fields of blood ! An 
endless succession of wars in Germany was originated by pontifical pride ; no tie was 
held sacred ; no oath was binding ; no law of God or man respected, if the Roman 
pontiff could only gratify his satanic passions; and extend his anti-christian power ! 
In a word, kings, and princes, and magistrates, were sacrificed to his ambition. And 
while the flames of war kindled by him, raged over many lands, and while oceans 
of human blood were shed by his infernal emissaries, the priesthood, — he was all the 
time busy in di awing in the wealth of the contending nations. He weakened, and 
divided, then conquered, and gained infinite wealth by national robbery ! All this 
was done in the name of Christ ; all this robbery was for man's spiritval good ; all 
this money went into holy Peter's purse for man's salvation ! 

Touching the nature and extent of the pope's supremacy there is a mistake gener- 
ally prevailing among our fellow citizens. Our political men, and very many of even 
our christian professors, conceive that it exists merely in name, among the Roman 
catholics in our country : and that it is not acknowledged now by the enlightened 
members of that sect. This is a great error. I am indebted to an estimable friend of 
mine for an important fact which goes to illustrate this matter. He states what took 
place in our State Legislature about 26 years ago. He was at that time a member of it. 
Francis Cooper, Esq. one of his associates elected, was a Roman catholic; he could 
not take the oath of office and allegiance because it bound him " to abjure all allegi- 
ance to king, prince, potentate and power, whether ecclesiastical or civil." He 
could not abjure the pope's supremacy : he could not renounce this foreign yoke. 
On his petition, and that of the Roman catholics, a bill was brought in to strike out 
the word " ecclesiastical." An animated debate took place, and, owing to the rage of 
politics, and the general want of knowledge of the true nature and tendency of the 
foreign yoke of popery, it was carried. And so the Roman catholics do not abjure 
foreign ecclesiastical allegiance ! This establishes the fact that the papal supremacy 
includes a ghostly despotism over his votaries, not equalled in any Turkish, or any 
pagan land. 

Some, I dare sajs arc disposed to admit that the plea of the papists is plausible and 
right : that they own him merely as their " spiritual head." I have two reasons 
why I demur to this. First, it cannot be republican ; nor salutary to civil liberty to be 
under such foreign despotism, — that a man cannot think, nor write, nor act, or even 
read the holy scriptures, without being exclusively moved and dictated to by a foreign 
despot? A man who thus sells his soul, and his christian liberty, can never be a good 
and faithful lover of American liberty. It is utterly impossible. Rut, (his is not all, — 
this separation of the ecclesiastical from the civil and tem])oral })owtT of the Poi)e is 
not authorised, not even recognized, far less allowed by the Pope. It has never been 
yielded up by him : and it never can, and it never will. Why ? because a despu! 

12* 



126 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 



never yields, but for ever tries to acquire more power : and because, as every papis? 
pleads, the pope and church are infallible, and immutable. And it is most manifest 
that all papists who separate the spiritual from the temporal power, are in the very 
act of robbing the pope. They arc in the act of robbing the pope of the most brilliant 
gem in his crown,— his infollibiUty ! The sentiments of the popes quoted above, fully 
prove this. And the case of Mr. Farnan, of Brooklyn : and the late difficulties be- 
tween the highly respectable and intelligent trustees of St. Patrick's and the priests, 
must satisfy every one that the priests and Jesuits here have never given up this claim 
of temporal power; and they never will. It is true, they tell the Protestant public, 
(hat they admit only the spiritual power. But they know, and every intelligent man 
in the community does know, that the priests have sworn before Almighty God to up- 
hold the pope in all the extent of his power: they do own his civil power as much as 
liis spiritual ; or, as the alternative, they are, in the pope's eyes, daring rebels ; and 
before heaven, perjured knaves ! Let them choose the alternative of the dilemma. 

The present Pope has exhibited all the intolerance and bigotry of the ninth century ; 
and let the American public look to it, — every one of you, gentlemen, and every bishop 
and priest believe and avow the same sentiments,. In his Circular Letter published in 
Europe and America, your supreme Head, lately jn-onounced from the Vatican, that 
'■'liberty of conscience is an absurd and dangerous maxim: or rather the ravings of 
delirium P^ And you, gentlemen, beheve and unblushingly advocate the same thing: 
and you have not the assurance to come out and deny it. Let the x-Vmeriean public, 
both political and religious, look at this ; let them watch the priests, if they will' dis- 
avow this bull of their present ghostly leader at Rome ! 

This is not all : the pope and his priests are avowed enemies to the liberty of the 
Press : to them it is a torturing nuisance. Hear the present Pope's own words in the 
above named Circular. The hberty of the Press is " that fatal licence, of which we 
cannot entertain too much horror!'^ And if ever they gain the ascendancy here, they 
will soon show this, by the Codex Expurgatorius ; by chains, dungeons, racks, and 
fires ! In admitting the Pope's supremacy, they are sworn, on pain of damnation, 
to admit and honor all this dictation of the pope, in temporal and spiritual matters. 

11. In Rome's apostacy from the only rule of faith, she has irrecoverably lost the 
spirit of Christianity. 

The genius of Christianity is love, pure, holy,, unsubduable love and benevolence. 
"^ God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." " He 
that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love." "If a man say I love God, and 
hateth his brother, he is a liar !" " Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer ! and 
ye know that no murdefer hath eternal life abiding in him»" St. John's 1st epistle. 

Now contemplate the spirit of the Roman catholic church, ever since her great 
apostacy ; — as displayed in her dogmas, and actions. — The maxim " that no faith is 
to be kept with heretics,'^'' has been a favorite doctrine with Rome, most firmly believed 
and rigidly acted upon. Pope Gregory VII. made a decree to this purpose, which 
lias not been revoked. Martin V. said in his letter to the Duke of Lithuania, — "Be 
assured that thou sinnest mortally, if thou keepest thy faith with heretics !" Gregory 
IX. made a decree, absolving all people from their vows, and obligations to those whO' 
had fallen into heresy. And the Bishop Simanca, sometime professor of law in the 
University of Salamanca, in his famous work "The Catholic Institutions," — says in 
his commentary on this law of Gregory IX., that "by this law, all governors are set 
free from the bond of theh oath." " A Catholic wife is set free from her obligations- 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 127 

to perform her marriage contract with her heretical husband." And he adds, " Justly^ 
therefore, were some heretics [Huss and Jerome] burned by the council of Constance, 
although they had been promised security !" The general council of Constance did 
solemnly establish this characteristic, and sanguinary dogma of the Roman catholic 
church, that "no faith must be kept with heretics." 

Carrying out this principle, Rome pronounces all who refuse to yield unlimited 
obedience to the pope's despotism in all things, to be heretics ; and heretics are trai- 
tors against heaven and Almighty God, because they are rebels against heaven's 
viCAK. And by that fact are their lives forfeited; and it is a duty to burn, kill, cut 
dov/n, and exterminate them from the face of the earth. "And the blood of here- 
tics," — say your Rhemish annotators on Rev. xvii. 6, — "is no more the blood of 
saints, than the blood of thieves, man killers, and other malefactors, for the shedding of 
which, by order of justice, no commonwealth shall answer." 

By this solemn dogma of the Romish church, all devoted Roman catholics are 
taught from their childhood, to believe that to kill a Protestant, or a heretic, is doing 
God a service, because it is the act of executing Holy Mother church's law. Hence 
that unshaken enmity, malice, wrath, and murderous hatred, Avhich bigoted Roman 
catholics feel against Protestants, Jews, and others ! They abhor them even as one 
abhors the prince of darkness ! They believe them all to be worse than thieves, 
robbers, and murderers. Their canons, and their priests daily teach that no man can 
possibly be saved who is not a Roman catholic. And besides these weekly and daily 
impressions made by the priests, and the diabolical spirit breathed throughout their 
books and conversations, " the faithful" are accustomed once every year, at least, — 
tliat is on the Thursday of Passion week, — to see the Pope's representative, in his 
flaming scarlet robes, (the emblem of their bloody purpose) pronouncing the curse of 
present and perpetual perdition on all Protestants. This is regularly done in our 
cities, and throughout the land. 

This deeply malignant spirit, has often burst forth as a merciless demon from " the 
bottomless pit." Hence the murderous wars of the Crusades against the Turks, and 
the christian Waldenses ! Hence the wars of Germany, and all Europe, in the dark 
ages, and in the times of the Reformation. The Roman catholic princes of the bloody 
house of the Bourbons, and of Austria, went forth at the pope's nod, " doing God 
service," for "the spiritual good of man," perseci/ing, plundering, burning, and 
massacring Protestants ! Hence the horrid interdicts, and excommunications ol 
king-s, and whole nations; hence depositions, and the absolving of subjects from their 
allegiance and duty to the magistracy, and the laws; the suspension of trade and com- 
merce; the refusal to let the dead be buried; and all the innunierable evils which 
popish fury could devise and inflict on a people. Hence the cool and systematic- 
murders of Protestants and others; in a long and bloody train of executions, — not fo 
speak of the Inquisition. Uf wards of sixty -eight millions of human beings, as we shall 
afterwards show, have been oflfercd upon the altar of the bloody Roman catholic faith. 
St. John, in vision, saw Rome catholic " drunk with the blood of the saints." Now, 
he that hatcth his brother, is a murderer. What must Rome be, which lurs made the 
hatred of men, who diOer from her in religion, an article of her religious creed ? 
What must she be, who has slicd sucli oceans of human blood? Is it not a mockery 
of religion and reason to call her a church of Christ ? Is it not an outrage on reason, 
to call that — Christianity, which stinudatc's her to do such danuiabh; deeds .' Moloch 



P 128 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTBOVERSt. 

and Jugernaut are mere chilclren in murderous crimes, compared to this. Offer no 
apologies for her, because Protestants have persecuted. They have done so ; but then 
it is no part of their rehgion. Calvin and others acted under the unrepealed bloody 
civil laws, which had been passed by Roman catholics, when Servetus was burned. 
There is nothing in the canons, nothing in the creed of Protestants, stimulating to 
Hi persecution. On the contrary, every sentiment in their creeds and confessions, breathes 

' ■ love and benevolence. The early Protestants were only acting out the infamous les- 

sons which they had, when young, unhappily learned from the Roman catholics. 
But it is a part of the canons, and elemental part of the religion of Rome, as we have 
seen above, to persecute and kill heretics ! And as if all this were not enough, the 
pope claims the j)ower of persecuting even after death. He claims the power of dam- 
nation. He absolutely claims the keys to shut out of heaven, and shut up in hell. 
Let any look, for proof of this, into the Bulls. I take up, for instance, the Bull of 
excommunication against Queen Elizabeth, of England. Here is the title of it. "The 
damnation and excommunication of Elizabeth, and her adherents, &c." *'Pope 
Pius, servant of the servants of God," — (marvellously humble this knave was) — "in 
perpetuam rei memoriam, &c." — Here we see the result of the Roman apostacv, 
tirom the only rule. Can that rule adopted by the Romish church, which stimu- 
lates to such deeds these monsters in human form, be a rule given to us from infinite 
love and benevolence 1 It is impossible ! 

in. Can a rule of faith which generates the most deplorable ignorance and revolting 
profligacy, proceed from the fountain of all light and holiness ? 

In every Roman catholic country, the priesthood, according to the letter of instruc- 
tion, and oath of office, direct their unmitigated hostility against these two things; 
namely, the promiscuous reading of the holy Bible : and the universal education of 
the people. " The Bible shall not be given to the people : the laity shall never be 
permitted to read the scriptures, when, and as they please;" "education shall not be 
given to the people universally : we are the fountain of knowledge : we the catholic 
priests have the keys ; — we have the keeping of God's will and secrets : and we let 
the light out, orally, as we please I Education and reading the Bible only make 
heretics ! The more intelligent the people are made by reading, the nearer are they 
to damnation!" This is on every priest's lips: it is the burden of their preaching; 
and of their every day conversa^^ion. 

The pope, in his late Circular, denounced Bible Societies, as "the device of the 
devil." And his priests, as in dut}^ bound, by their oaths, re-echo this hostility to the 
Bible, and to education, every where. And in our own land, as well as in Italy, and 
Spain, the priesthood are laboriously employed in watching over their flocks: not in 
instructing them ; not in meliorating their condition; not in communicating education 
and industrious habits : but in checking the dangerous inroads of light; and the fatal 
consequences of universal education I And in those places where the influence of 
Protestants constrains them to open schools, what do they teach the youthful spirits 
of our land? To say ten thousand Ave Marys: to pray to innumerable idols: to 
hate and execrate the English version of the Bible ; to hate and abhor Protestants: to 
own the pope's and priest's unlimited despotism : to consider the pope's and priest's 
power above that of our President : and all our governors : and all the magistracy of 
the land : that our government and magistrates, being heretics are merely usurpers ; 
that the time is coming when they shall gain ascendency, and shall crush all hereti- 
cal rulers! And, yet, these men would wish to have money from our public funds,, 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONtROVERSr. 129 

paid by the taxes levied on Protestants, to support these nunneries, and seminaries, 
where these principles are taught, subversive of all order in Europe, and America. 

The people who are imbued with popery, are, generally speaking, more ignorant, 
and far more ferocious than those of ancient pagan Egypt, Greece, or Rome. And in 
point of idolatry, superstition and morals, the pagan Greeks and Romans were far 
purer, and more refined ! The proof of this meets the eye of every traveller in Swit- 
zerland, Italy, Spain, and in bleeding Ireland. Poverty is the child of Romish idola- 
try and superstition. In the Eastern despotism, the tyrant robs the subject of the fruits 
of industry ; and paralizes all his efforts. In popish communities, the priest jfleeces 
the obedient flocks; and paralyzes the arm of industry. Add to this, that there are 
many saint days, and lady days, and holy festival days, when no man truly 
Roman catholic, dare follow his lawful avocations. These do almost cut off the poor 
man's little income, and make him miserably poor. And, then, patron saints' days 
are closed with brutal revelry and debauchery ! They glorifx^ their saints and idols, 
by fighting, gambling, swearing, blasphemies, and brutish drunkenness. Look for 
proof of this, to Rome, Naples, Madrid, the South of Ireland, and that portion of father 
Levins' parish, in the vicinity of the Cathedral, and at the place called '■'■the Five 
Points,'^ in New York. 

We foi-merly quoted the lives of the popes, and showed out of j'our own writers, 
Baronius and Guiciardini, that "He was usually deemed a good pope who did not 
excel in wickedness the worst of the human kind." And he being the great fountain 
head of impurity, — pollution naturally flowed, through his accredited priesthood, as 
a dead sea over all the land. The moral infamy of a church must be consummate^, 
when, by the decree of pope Paul III., houses which I cannot name, were openly 
licensed ; and 60,000 infamous beings yielded their immense revenue of wickedness 
to the pope's treasures. And it is so in Rome, unto this day. These licences aflford 
large revenues to " tJie holy father.''^ It is a truth notorious at Rome, that he receives 
the one third of the profits weekly, and annually, from these ZicensecZ haunts of infamy%. 

And it has been a subject of amusement to those who are intimate with our priests, 
to hear their affectation and prudery about the admirable little narrative "Lorette, or 
the daughter of a Canadian Nun." They call it "an obscene fiction." What! A 
Roman catholicpriest affecting to have his modesty shocked at "iore^fe," a moral and 
instructive narrative of facts ! A priest shocked at imaginary " obscenity," — into 
whose ears and imagination, and heart, is daily poured,' at the confessional, as into a 
common sewer, all that is impure, polluting, and loathsome, in a whole parish. 
" Credat Judffius Apelles, non ego." 

Let any one take up Paschal's Provincial letters, and that book sold in our book- 
stores, called " Secrtta Monita, — The secret instructions of the Jesuits ;" and let him 
read the extracts out of the 326 Jesuit writers, on morality, and he will oasil}'- discover 
that paganism, counting in even Sodam and Gomorrah, had nothing to equal Ro- 
mish doctrines, and Jesuit criminality. 

I took up the two folio volumes of Ludovicus Molina, the other day, and read a 
passage to a friend of mine, out of the 1150 page, 2nd volume, ia Latin ; to give liim 
an idea of the moral instructions given to servants,^— as he had some Roman catholic 
servants in his family. I then turned to the extract out of Cardenas, Crisis Thcolog. 
Diss. 23, cap. 2, p. 474; and there read to him what is instilled into tlio ears of the 
" simple faithful," of the confessional, that he might know how lo trust tlicsc women 
who make confessions to expelled Jesuits. Here are the words. — "Servants may 



130 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

secretly steal from their masters as much as they judge their labor is worth, more 
than the wages they receive." "In good earnest," exclaimed my friend, "one of my 
domestics, who is quite punctual in going to confession, has been reducing this literally 
into practice. I have detected this Roman catholic woman robbing me, to some con- 
siderable amount." 

" She acted upon principle," said I, " and is an apt scholar : the priest shrieves her, 
and receives his boon." 

I read him some more extracts. Here they are: "A man is not bound to restore 
what he has stolen in small sums, however large may be the total." See Tam- 
bur. Explic. Decal. Lib. 8, p. 205. Again : — " A woman may take the property of 
her husband to supply her spiritual wants, and to act as other women." That is, 
women, who are more punctual in confessing to the priest than men are, may rob to 
pay holy father confessor. See Gordonus, Theol. Mor. Univ. p. 826. Again ; — 
"After a son has robbed secretly his father, as a compensation, the confessor need not 
enforce restitution, if he has taken no more than the just reward of his labor." See 
Fran. Xavier Fegeli p. 158. And the following will sliow how a Jesuit feels toward 
magistrates: — "A priest cannot be forced to give his testimony before a secular judge." 
See Taberna vol. 2, p. 268. And Tamburinus, Lib. 3, p. 27. teaches that, — " the 
judge is not a competent lawful authority to receive the testimony of ecclesiastices." 
Emmanuel Sa teaches in Aphor. p. 41. That " the rebellion of Roman priests is not 
treason, because they are not subject to civil government." Airault Cens. p 319. 
teaches this doctrine of assassination, — "If a calumniator will not cease to publish 
calumnies, you may fitly kill him, not publicly, but secretly, to avoid scandal." And 
Escobar in his Theol. Moral, vol. iv. p. 274, taught that, — " it is lawful to kill an accuser 
whose testimony may jeopard your life and honor." And to consummate their vil- 
lainous doctrine, Busembaum and Lecroix in Theol. Moral, vol. i. p. 295, teach this 
doctrine of devils: " In all the above cases where a man has a right to kill any person, 
another may do it for him, if affection move the murderer !" 

I beg leave to add here, what our unsuspecting fellow-citizens will scarcely believe ; 
but it can be fully proved from the standard writings of the Romish church ; — it is 
this, all Jesuits and papists (I mean priests and those bigots who obey them) believe 
that the property of all Protestants, being heretics, is forfeited, and belongs of right, 
to "Holy Mother Church," just as in monarchies where the man's property is confis- 
cated, who is guilty of high treason. Hear their words: — " Every christian govern- 
ment as soon as they openly abandon the Roman faiih instantly are degraded from 
all power and dignit}^ by human and divine right." Philop. Respons. ad Edict, p. 
106. That is, the Roman catholics may seize on their power and means. Bellar- 
mine teaches, as we have already seen, in Lib. v. cap. 6, that the Pope has the chief 
power of disposing of the temporal affairs of all christians, &c." And Pope Innocent 
VIII. in his sanguinary bull, by v^'hich he sent a crusade of armed bandits, to extirpate 
the Waldenses, in the year 1487, "gave a full and entire license," to his Nuntio, 
" to grant to every one of the soldiers of the crusade, a permission to seize and freely 
possess the goods, moveable and immoveable : and to give them for a prey, whatever 
the heretics have brought to the lands of the papists." He then proceeds to say that 
all who are bound by contract, to assign and pay any thing to them (the Waldenses) 
are set entirely free from such bonds, to keep and possess what belongs to them. 

I shall sum up the moral character of Jesuitism, which has been thirty-nine times 
abolished and expelled from the different governments of Europe : and iu doing this, 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSt. ^^451 

I shall employ the high authority of the Arret of the Parliament of France in 1762, 
when it extirpated the Jesuits. " The consequences of their doctrines destroy the law 
of nature : break all the bonds of civil society : authorizing lying, theft, perjury, the 
utmost uncleanness, murder, and all sins ! Their doctrines root out all sentiments of 
humanity : excite rebellion : root out all religion : and substitute all sorts of supersti- 
tion, blasphemy, irreligion, and idolatry." Such is the declaration of the Parliament 
of Paris. See the Secret Instructions of the Jesuits, Appendix p. 111. &c. 

Now, this order, the most daring and outrageous of all the Monkish orders, — which 
had turned the governments of Europe into fields of blood, and which has been ba- 
nished from every country of Europe, — was revived, and organized by Pope Pius 
VII., in 1814. And I earnestly beg all my fellow-citizens to be assured that it has 
been revived, and is now employed with all its accustomed diabolical cunning and 
power, to gain over the U. States under the papal yoJce ! And amid various facilities, 
they are availing themselves of the perfect religious liberty of our Republic, to carry on 
a deep conspiracy against the Protestant religion, and our civil liberty. It is a tremen- 
dous sword, the hilt of which is at Rome ! Every vessel that arrives brings in multi- 
tudes of Jesuit priests in disguise. And all of them conspire in aiming a tremendous 
blow, which, if God prevent not, and ward off from our slumbering fellow-citizenf?, 
will fall, one day, with the horror of a Skullabog, an Irish, and Parisian massacre ! 

Now, you have hitherto performed unmatched feats of vituperation : will you permit 
me, gentlemen, to beg you to meet my charges and arguments. I have copied my 
extracts from your own books. Disprove and refute them, if the thing can be done. 
It can be done only by abjuring your own books \ or detecitng false quotations ; meet 
them logically : or frankly tell us the truth that you cannot. Either alternative 
requires, I fear, more courage than what you possess. 

I am, gentlemen, yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



Our priests had already given frequent indications of a desire to retreat. They only 
wanted, and they were earnestly seeking, a suitable pretext. We had stated their doctrines 
and ceremonies in strong language, it is true : but this, it is believed^ was fully sustained by 
quotations from their own books. " The greater the truth, the greater the libel." This 
quaint maxim is understood by every culprit. Each development of their true system was 
" slander." We were held up to R. C. execration by the priests, with a view to cover their 
meditated retreat. Hints of personal violence were often thi-own out , but no credit was 
given to the rumors. A remark in my Letter X. on the vile scenes of the Confessional, was 
called "slanderous," simply because it was too true for the public car, Tiiis brought a 
repetition of sacerdotal threats: and the following Editorial Notice appeared in the Roman 
Catholic paper, the ferocious design of which was too manifest. This, together Avith the 
Card, in reply, here follows. 

"It is to bo regretted that Dr. Brownlee, a minister of religion, should so far forget his 
station as to insult the Irish Catholics of this city in his controversial Letter of to-day. This 
does not prove his rule of faith or judge of controversy. His allusions to Catholics at the 
Five Points arc gross and false. The Irish catholics of this city have feelings, and he should 
respect them. If the honor and dignity connected with his sacred station do not urge him 
to the expression of truth, they should suggest prudctirc. Such allusions as he makes to the 
Five Points are insults to Irish Catholics; and insults may excite a sjnrit which he cannot 
suppress ; — insults are not always endured by Irisiimcn." 



132 nOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

"The Doctor is informed that a foul allusion to the sacrament of confession, is left out, 
Its authorship would disgrace the keeper of a brothel." 



A CARD. 

To the Public. — My Reverend opponents, the priests, having exhausted their last idea ; and 
spent nearly all the fury of vituperation, seem now to have recourse to threats of personal 
violence. This appears from an extraordinary article which Mr. Denman has seen fit to 
admit under his editorial head; but which, however, bears the usual attributes of father 
Levins's style ! 

To effect their evil purpose they hold me up to their partizans, " the rabble," as guilty of 
outraging the feelings of" Irishmen." This I solemnly deny; and it is too ridiculous to need 
a serious refutation. It is enough for me to state that among my numerous personal friends 
I number many " Irishmen" whom I love and honor. I know the noble traits of a genuine 
Irishman's character: audit is impossible for me to insult their feelings. And I tell the 
Priests and their Englishman Editor that every sensible man in the Roman catholic commu- 
nity kno\Ts tliat I am incapable of insulting an Irishman's feelings ! It is "Priestcraft," 
and its unenviable attributes that I deem fair game ; because it is the greatest enemy to our 
free institutions, and our religious liberties I 

But, is it possible that Irishmen do not see through this thin veil of hypocrisy ? Who does 
not see that Mr. Denman, and his priests have here offered tlie most outrageous insult to an 
Irish3Ian's feelings ! They have here, identified the character of Irishmen, with the charac- 
ter of the "Five Points." Who ever deemed any connection between the two, until Mr. 
D. and his ghostly advisers have declared that he who speaks against the "Five Points," 
does insult an Irishman's feelings ? In all the annals of vituperation there never was a 
greater insult offered to Irishmen than this, from Mr. Denman and his Priests ! 

But, it is impossible not to see the design of this article in the last " Truth Teller." There 
is, in it, a characteristic threat of personal violence ; it rouses to deeds of violence and 
blood! But we are not in Italy or Spain! We are in New York, where the laws reign ! 
For my part, these tlu-eats move not me ; the word fear, I do not know the meaning of. I 
shall follow, in my humble course, the immortal Luther. I shall go with him even to the 
city of " Worms ;" and with Huss and Jerome of Prague; even to " Constance ;" and I shall 
go. as Luther said' — " were there as many devils in my way, as there are tiles on the houses !" 
And let them venture on the execution of their sanguinary threats ! I do solemnly warn 
them in the face of the New York community, that the first Protestant blood that is shed 
liex-e, will raise a flame which all the waters of the Hudson will not quench ! 

I ought to add that the priests ordered Mr. Denman to strike out a sentence in Letter X. ; 
and it is presented in a garbled form to the public in the Catholic paper; and, moreover, he 
assigns a reason for doing this, in impure language, such as none but an expelled Jesuit could 
employ. The banished sentence is restored to its place: and the public can judge of its 
truth and relevancy. 

But, after all, what is " the head and front of my offending," which has called forth this 
threat of violence, from the priests and their editor ? Simply this : In the following Letter 
I only ventured to compare the state of morals at Rome, Naples, Madrid, and the South of 
Ireland, with those of the " Five Points" in our city! Now had Mr. Levins been capable 
of duly appreciating the morals of all ultra Roman catholic countries; and had he been pos- 
sessed of the common sentiments of courtly gratitude, he would, instead of" bloody t)ireats," 
have made me one of his best bows ; and heartily thanked me for putting him, cfnd this holy 
portion of his parish, into such good company ! ' 

J am respectfully, 

W. C. BROWNLEE. 



1 
I 



EOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 133 



EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER X. 

TThis letter occupies nearly five columns of a common newspaper size. It contains the 
following subjects : — 

1. Personal invectives without O'ConneVs eloquence, or Collet's elegant polish! We pre- 
sent a specimen. 

"In your last, you, the intimate with the ''Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost," 
have out-Brownleed Brownlee. The merit is great, and only a Brownlee could hav& 
achieved it." 

"The liberty of conscience conferred by your "ever blessed Reformation" must not be 
checked, or controled." 

" The consciousness of defeat is evident, in every paragraph of your last. There are the 
ascerbity of mind, the sourness of temper, the sullenness of disposition, the recklessness of 
truth, the indifference to character, the unblushing assertion, the faithlessness in citing au- 
thority, the wilfulness that would inflict injury and the suggestion that would affix a stain to 
character, which ever have been the last resources of ungenerous minds, when writhing 
under disgrace, defeat and overthrow, — when tortured by the worm that never dies." 

There is in " your notorious tenth, the deep toned growl of Calvinistic peace and love, 
uttered by the religious minister, who vaunts familiarity with an interior spirit, intimacy 
with the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost,' and fellowship with ' highly intelligent 
and ' virtuous ladies.' For shift and subterfuge, contradiction and falsehood, joined to un- 
gentlemanlike language, bold calumnies, and rancorous malice, it stands unrivalled. So 
much of these bitter and damning elements we never expected to meet with in any human 
being, much less in a predestined clergyman treating of the concerns of religion." 

Such is our priests' gratitude for our painful inquiry into the origin and tendency of their 
novel system ! This personality occupies upwards of a column and a half. 

2. There follows Luther again with the rejected epistle of St. James: and the German 
Bible, in one fourth of a column. 

3. Their vindication of the authorised Douay : — 

" Dr. B. says the ' Douay Bible is unauthorised by the pope and church:' and this is the 
inference you deduce from ^y our ignorance of the scholastic term proposed to you! The 
Douay Bible printed by Mr. John Doyle, in this city has been approved hy the catholic bishop of 
New York, and by the bishop of Sotith Carolina. It was printed from a copy of the Douay 
Bible approved by the catholic bishop of Dublin. The Bible printed in Philadelphia tecs 
approved by the bishop of that city. The Douay Bible in England is approved and sanctioned 
by the catholic bishops in England, and what they and other bishops approve and sanction 
is authorised by the Pope, for they, immediately under the pope, are the guardians of the catho- 
lic religion. Will you again repeat to the members of the Middle Dutch Churcli and your 
' christian public' this slander and falsehood ?" 

4. The rest of the letter, about two closely printed columns, contains a renewed attack, if 
possible, more virulent than ever, on the perfection of the holy scriptures: tliov are declared 
to be utterly inadequate, as a rule: they cannot settle the meaning of certain expressions, as 
" this is my body,'''' — " born of water and the spirit," <fec. : they cannot settle one of the great 
points of controversy between the Roman catholic church and Protestants: they c;uniot 
throw lighten certain points by reason of their obscurity : they cannot even remove the ap- 
parent contradictions in them. Finally, after repeating the three questions, so often an- 
swered, " Horn do you know the Bible to be the tcord of God,''^ &c. they close in this lansruagc : 

" But the scripture cainiot prove cither the canonicity, or the authenticity, or the inspira- 
tion of its own books; — therefore, our consistent tlicologian cannot believe in tlie canoni- 
city, authenticity, divinity, or inspiration of scriptures ; therefore, his rulk makes him a 
Deist!" 

" Sufficient proof has been given in our letters, that Preacher Brownlco's Protestant rule 

13 



134 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY 



^ 



of faith, cannot be asa/e guide to a future world ; — it establishes no basis for divine faith ;— if 
followed, it MUST guide to deism and infidelity." 

" What shall be the next subject of discussion between us, and preacher Brownleel" 
'' Having disposed of his rule of faith, or, in other words, the foundation of his religion^ 
the next topic evidently is, What are the articles of creed determined by his rule of faith, 
wliich must be believed in order to secure salvation ? Will the Preacher refuse to enter 
on this matter? If he do he will act irrationally. We wish to be illumined." 

Th\s is, di xn^re ruse du guerre. The priests are meditating a retreat from the arena, and 
they are planning a pretext to cover their retreat. Hence they say in the close of their let- 
ter: — " Should the Preacher in the Middle Dutch Church, decline discussion on this subject ,. 
our direct controversy with him is terminated.'' 



LETTER XL 

TO DOCTORS POWER, AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 

" Gia Roma, hor Babilonia falsa, e ria, &c. — 
"Formerly Rome, now Babylon, falsa and guilty — 
Hell of the living ! It will be a great miracle, 
If Christ is not angry with thee at last!" 

Petrarch, lorn. 4. p. 149 

Gentlemen: — In your last Letter you have exhibited a paralysis : and have almost 
given up the ghost. I have gone over your epistle twice ; and I deliberately affirm, 
that no man, Protestant or Catholic, can discover one new idea : or an approach to a 
reply to any one of my arguments, against your rule, and the fanaticism of your sect. 
In the close, you repeat, in a condensed form, the one all pervading, and one only 
■solitary idea, which has ever yet appeared in your ten Letters : it is this : — " Preacher 
Brownlee's Protestant rule," — that is to say, God's inspired Word, and the Almighty 
speaking to us in it, — "cannot be a safe guide to the future world: his Protestant 
rule," — that is, the inspired scripture, and tlie Almighty speaking in them to us, — 
"if followed, must guide to deism and infidelity !" Thus then, you deliberately affirm, 
for the tenth time, tliat God speaking to man in his own Word, " must guide to deism 
^ aod infidelity!" 

W'ill the force of public opinon have no influence in checking this infidelity, and 
blasphemy ? Let any one read the speech of the blasphemous Assyrian, Rabshakeh, 
and then say, if he can there discover any thing worse than this mockery of God's 
holy Word, and the name of the Holy Ghost ! 

I have drawn you into the net, at last, in the affair of the Douay Bible. You 
affirm that your " bishop's" permission is "pontifical" authority! — With men thus 
reckless of truth, no measured terms can be observed ! Do you, then, venture to affirm 
that "a bishop's" authority is "the Pope's" authority? You know that no bishop 
can give pontifical authority to any book. And your leading men in Britain have 
pronounced that to be a falsehood which you have asserted. I now give you the 
names. Dr. Poynter, titular bishop of London, declared on his solemn oath, before 
the committee of the British House of Commons, that, "there is no English version 
of the Bible, at all, autliorised by the See of Rome." And Dr. Troy", your Archbishop 
of Dublin published under his proper signature, — and Dr. Doyle, on his solemn oath, 
that " the notes of the Douay Bible are of no authority whatever !" Thus your lead- 
ing men in Britain,, give you the lie ! And thus, there is most satisfactory evidence 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 135 

that the "Douay Bible" is a mere hoax, and an imposture, pahned on the simplicity 
of Protestants ! I am reduced to the alternative of either insulting your intellectual 
power, or of affirming that each of you knows this to be the most certain truth. 

And how can you reconcile your young and unfledged zeal for the use of the Bible, 
in the hands of your people, in their vernacular; and for "the authorised yersion. of the 
Douay," with your sworn allegiance to the pope and Tridentine fathers ? You have the 
fourth " rule of the congregation of the Index" lying before your eyes. By the jmntifical 
authority, the highest with all Romish priests, be it in heaven or earth, it is thus declar- 
ed, — "It is manifest from experience that if the sacred Bible, translated into the vulgar 
tongue, be indiscriminately allowed to every one, the temerity of men will cause more 
evil than good to arise from it." 

Now, with the example of these priests in England and Ireland before you, and 
this notorious canon of the council of Trent, it unquestionably required no small 
degree of assurance to tell the American public what you did, relative to " the authorised 
Douay Bible !" Yes, the Bible, in English, is a prohibited book, by the pope and a 
council. And, yet, your very bishops, who have sworn the solemn oath of allegiance 
to the spiritual autocrat of Rome, and recorded their pledge, on pain of damnation, to 
execute, even to the letter, every one of his laws, — have publicly declared that they 
do permit, and even recommend this prohibited English version ! And our priests, 
for reasons best known to themselves, if not for popular effect, are not ashamed to pro- 
claim the treacherous knavery. Were similar conduct exhibited publicly as this is, — 
in any common monied transaction, it would cover our bishops, and our priests, in 
every virtuous circle of American society, with perpetual infamy. 

I shall now go on with the subject of your church's Superstition and Imposture. 

Charles Butler, Esq. the author of "The Book of the R. catholic church," says: — • 
" May I not ask if it be either just or generous to harass the present catholics, with 
the weakness of the ancient writers of their communion; and to attempt to render 
their religion and themselves odious, by these unceasing and offensive repetitions I" 
This has been also said by our priests in their Letter IX. 

Werethesesuperstitions, and miracles, and this fanaticism, publicly disowned, and 
condemned by your church, you should never hear of them from us. But all these 
false miracles and endless superstitions are printed in your "Breviar}'-," used weekly 
m your worship : they are read in Latin weekly ; applauded, defended, prayed over, 
and believed by you, and owned by C. Butler himself; even while he wrote the above 
sentence ! Your popes applaud them, and on the faith of these miracles they canon- 
ized the saints which you worship. Your bishops own and applaud them, and pro- 
nounce their anathema on all those who disbelieve any one part, or parcel of all the 
fanaticism which I quoted. Only, — they are all in Latin ! Locked up are they, from 
common view and public execration, in Latin! Every Saint's day, Drs. Power, 
and Varela and Mr. Levins, pray over these very superstitions, and fanaticism, and 
miracles: — even while they publicly call them "silJy, dreamy legends!" You 
canjiot deny your "Breviary !" You cannot disown your book, — tlie "Acta Sancto- 
rum." 

Lot the honesty, therefore, of Mr. Butler, in the above appeal, and that of our 
priestJs, ])ass for what it is worth. 

In addition to my former observations, I have now to state : — 4th. That the Super- 
stition of the Romish church confirms the melancholy evidence of her utter apostacy 
from the^only rule of faith. " Sui)erslition," says Bishop UiUU — " is godless religion ; 



136 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST, 

devout impiety : the superstitious is foud in observation : servile in fear : he worships 
God, but as he Usts : he oHers to God what he asks not; and all but what he should 
give ; and makes more sin than do the ten commandments !" In your church, gen- 
tlemen, there is every gradation of this vice, from the sober burlesque, even to the deep 
tragic flagellation, and penance. It is, as we shall prove, one mass of superstition. 

For instance, it is a part of your religion, to baptize bells, before they are set up. 
1 have before me some instructive instances of this : particularly those that took place 
of the latest dales, in Canada and Naples. A gaudy procession comes into the church, 
with a priestly attire of motley colors; like some equipped buffoons for the stage : a 
god father, and a god mother stand up by the Bell, and take the vows ! The dumb 
thing is wetted in the form of a cross; then crossed with "holy chrism," while the 
lips of the priest taking the awful name of the Trinity in vain, baptizes it in the most 
holy name ! The priest tlien gives three strokes with the clapper: the god parents do 
the same; and then solemnly pronounce the Bell's name. This farce, the disgrace of 
our enlightened day, is made, moreover, to subserve the cause of a more degrading 
feiiperstition. The sound of these baptized Bells, as you priests, gravely teach your 
])eople, fails not to disperse devils lurking in the air ; and make them scamper off with 
incredible celerity. It also, you as gravely teach, brings souls out of purgatory. All 
Saints^ day is, in Canada, and in all Roman catholic lands, a great day of ringing 
thcso "baptized bells," and thereby bringing souls out of purgatorial pains, and purg- 
ing the air of devils. 

The priest's dresses also teem with superstition. Two things go to secure the divine 
efficacy of your rites and ceremonies. One is the priest's intention of soul to do " what 
the church" intends ; the other is his consecrated dress. AVere the priest to officiate 
without the appropriate garb: and did that want the "holy shape," and "the appro- 
priate holy color," for the day and occasion, the ])riest and laity would be in a mortal 
sin. Without the orthodox shape, and color, they cannot be accepted by the Almighty : 
but it is of no consequence whether the}-- have religion, or even the common decency 
of morals. All your religion is in the outer man ; and in ceremony, and in the color, 
aiid shape of sacerdotal dress. 

The divine efficacy of prayers uttered in the Latin tongue, which none of the laity 
understand, is another part of your superstition. You deem it not at all necessary that 
any one of your people offer up, in his soul, one vow, or prayer, with the understand- 
inw. Indeed how can he ? He understands not one idea which you utter. The people 
are thus made a mere tool of: they act without heart and understanding. They do 
iiot know one prayer. You mutter barbarous Latin words over them. These are 
viev/ed merely as a charm ; a hocus pocus from the lips of the sacerdotal legerdemain. 
This nurses the ignorance of an mimovable superstition. The piiest "negotiates" 
the whole work of salvation for sinners, who go on in a course of impious morals ; and, 
at the last, the priestly embassy, they are told, is honored in heaven : and the souls are 
saved by the virtue of outward mummery; — and, provided all the church's dues are 
paid, their debts in heaven are cancelled. 

Farther, the whole aj)pendages of the mass are one train of superstition. I allude, 
mainly at present, to your prayers offered up by your pious priests and flocks, to saint 
sacrament. For be it known, that the sacrament is converted into an idol: and 
to St. Sacrament devout prayers are offered. The Litany of this saint is too 
long to be quoted: yet I cannot resist the desire of presenting a specimen 
of these prayers. "Bread corn of the elect, have mercy onus! Wine budding 



I 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 137 

from Virgins, have mercy on us ! Fat bread, and the dehght of kings, have mercy 
on us! Cup of blessing, have mercy on us!" And so on. All these prayers are 
offered, while you bow down to the bread and chalice. That is, they are offered up 
to the bread and cup ! This I venture to say, throws into the shade, and fairly eclipses 
all pagan superstition ! " For who ever heard," — says Cicero, — '* of a people making 
a god of that which they eat, and then praying to it?" But you do make a god of 
bread, and then pray to it, and then eat it ! 

The use of incense is a fragment of pagan superstition. This characteristic 
of popery strikes all who enter a chapel ; it is poured forth from the altar, and the 
whimsical play of swinging the censor. In old catholic lands the images of the 
Romish saints, are as black as the pagan saints in their day, by this incessant smoke. 
Now, your use of incense is not originated by the custom of the abrogated ceremonial 
law of Moses. Your custom is purely pagan. And had you lived in the times of 
pagan Rome, none of you, verily, would have been martyrs, and none of you even 
deemed christians ! For our ancestors of the pure primitive christians, deemed it 
strictly pagan : and it was even a test resorted toby the heathen, to entrap a christian. 
If any one consented to burn incense, he avowed thereby his relinquishment of Christ- 
ianity ; and he was let go as a traitor to Christ, with the applause of the heathen ! 

The use of holy water is another prominent superstition. At the door of the 
chapel, each one helps himself from the "holy" reservoir. This is notoriously bor- 
rowed from the pagan worship. " The Amula," says Montfaucon, " was the vase of 
water which stood at the door of the heathen temple for the same purpose. La Cer- 
6as, in his notes on the well known passage of Virgil respecting sprinkling, saj^s, 
"Hence is derived the custom of Holy Mother, to provide holy water at the entrance 
of the chapel, &c." Even the mixture is pagan; it was that of salt and water! And 
here I remark again, that had you lived in apostolical and early limes, your present 
superstition would have saved you from martyrdom ; and spared you even the charge 
of being christians. Dr. Middleton has shown that this was made a test of christian 
discipleship : if they refused sprinkling they suffered. And Julian Apostate caused 
the food of christians to besprinkled with "holy pagan water;" and they behoved 
either to eat it, or starve. Middleton p. 136 — 140. 

Your superstition has also engendered many charms and incantations. You are 
noted for this. No thoroughly devout Roman catholic will stir abroad until he has 
crossed his shoulders and face : nor converse with heretics, nor read their books, until 
he has crossed himself, and invoked his guardian saint. The whole of your doctrine 
of saint's relics, is based on this superstition. They are charms to keep devils and 
"bad luck," away from the simple faithful. You maintain a brisk trafic in the arti- 
cle of the " agnus dei,^'' — which is made of wax, balsam and chrism, with the image 
of "the lamb of God," on it. These Agni Dei are consecrated by the pope, usu- 
ally in the first year of his ghostly reign. And it is no trifle that will keep the iaithful 
from having them, or a chip ol' them. Whoever is fortunate enough to wear them, as 
you teach your flocks, is "safe from all si)iritual and temporal foes; from all p(?rils 
from fire and water : and from sudden and unshrivcd death. They drive away all 
devils, and succour women in child birth : nay, they wash away old sins, and give 
now grace." In evidence of this "See Franc. Cost. Christ. Instit. Lib. 4. cap. 12. 
And " Devotion and office of the sacred heart of Christ," p. 375. — Crain]>. 304. 

In the French service for " St. SacrauKuit," I sec a copy of "two prayers which 
were found in Christ's sepulchre ut Jerusalem." And whoever wears copies of these 

13* 



138 BOHAV CATHOLIC CO^T&OTH&ST. 



aboat his body, is perfectly safe against all the wiles of the devil : against afl slKBiy 
thunder, and lightning, and stxiden death! Gl. Proc. No. 60. 

Xow, I quote not private superstitions, such as the making a sovereign cure for 
diseases, as is done in Ireland, out a€ a inece ci clay taken from a priest's grave, and 
steeped in water ; nor the famous "• Italian soup,*' so late as 1S17, made with a bit 
of the shirt of Cardinal Gtmsalvi, bculed in it, to remedy all pains and evils, — made 
and gravely beheved in, at head quaners, — namely at Rome. See Gallifico's Letters, 
pubUshed in Londcna, 1612, by John Murray: and Glasg. Prot- No. 14^. The super- 
sdtLons which I have quoted, are solemnly authorised in yomr books, as part of joor 
belief, and anciem religion. 

Another peculiarity of your superstition is the use of lamps and irrzr camdles^ in open 
day, and as a pan of holy rites. The origin of this must strike every cme, well read in 
the classics. The Pagans had their procesaons with lamps ; and tapers were kept 
burning, day and night, befine the i(k>ls. The primitive chri^ians, yon know, ridicu- 
led this custom oi the idolatroos pagans. Lactantins' words I re(x>ininend to yon, gen- 
tlemen, and to all your people. "^'The heathen light ap candles to God,** — said this 
primitive christian with keen ridicole, — ^^^as if hi: lived in die dark ! And dodiey 
n«y. deserve to pa^ for madmen wiio ofier lamps to die Author and Giver of light ?** 
See Middleton p. 140—155. Yon cannot answer dns christian father in the negadve. 
Do you, then, and the laity, take good heed, and see to it : for yon have no commn- 
niori in this thing with the ancient priinidve christians ? Your gt>iis and aotaU live in 
the dark:" and •' yon li^t np lamps to give them light.'* 

Abstainii^ from meats in Lent, and other seasons, is another Angular attribute of 
2/oar snpersdiic». Yonr religion being one avowedly made to consist only in exter- 
nals, and one avowedly setting a^e all piety, pfurity, and spirituality in the heart : — 
It tbilows, with you, of course, contrary to our Saviour's words, that "it is vox. that 
which Cometh out of the heart, diat defil^h a man;" but Aat meat which *' enters 
into the mouth!'' This, you gravely at"Tin "i; does defile the man! Hence ''Toor 
disciples, on their ack beds," as Bishop HaU ^id; — " are troubled by oo sin so much 
a& by this, that they did once eat wteat on a Friday : no repentance can expiate that : 
the rest of their sios need none!" p. 171, works folio. But can your people not see 
through the imst c^" fanaticism, — that meat, which God has blessed and made good for 
our use, can no more defile the soid, than it can spoil a fine thought, or cormpt a pore 
idea! True, you reply, as you lull them adeep— this would iiold good if religion 
were in the heart.' But our reiigicm being ezfema/, altogether omtward, andin the acts 
of the body, the use of meats defiles our religions feelings, and qwils our devotion ! 

The discipu^e a^d pes^jlvce of your church are strongly marked with supersti- 
tion. In o|^>L>sidi>n to divine authority you insist on it, that bo^Iy extrtise is profita- 
ble to all things, even to salvation! Hence your cruel fastimgs, — ^pardiHi me, I mean 
in olden times. No charge can be brought against mod^n priests that they do not 
know how to lict uxU! The broad shouldered and farawiry priest, with the vermiDion 
countenance, was never " fed^or: dry pease and cold water," as Sir Walter Scott says. 

It is on the laity that your church lays the healthful blessing of fosting, and season- 
able lacerations, ajid flagelladons, with the whip ! This mania has occasaonally Ino- 
keo out in the overfiowings <^ superstidon ; and has drawn bishops and cardinals, 
and even kings into its vortex. A king of France, and the cardinal Lorrain, have 
been known to join the ^gdlation, clothed in sackclodi, and armed with " the holy 
ani saacdiying whip '." And historians tell us, that at a certain seascm of this disci« 



ROMAN CATTHOLIC CONfROVERST. 139 

pline, the lights in the Church are at the tinkhng of a bell, extinguished : then each 
devotee seizing the inspiring moment, — strips bare the shoulders; and for an hour no- 
thing is heard but' the noise of the well applied whip, either on their shoulders, or 
—it may be, — as profitably, on the benches within their reach ! And if any thing far- 
ther were necessary, I would point to St. Patrick's recorded macerations of the flesh, as 
a striking instance of this superstition. Lying on the cold stones, under the open air; 
repeating daily 150 psalms : making 300 genuflections, his right hand performing 
8Q0 motions in the sign of the cross daily ! and dividing the night into three parts : ona 
third on his knees : one third sleeping ; and one third standing immersed in cold wa- 
ter ! ! See the Rom. Brev. March 17. Thus St. Patrick spent his edifying days ! ! * 

But, by what name shall I call your worship paid to the wood of the Cross? In the 
holy scripture, the word cross is used to express, 1st., the cruel and ignominious death 
of crucifiction : and in this sense ''the tree" is " the accursed tree ;" and the person 
dying on it is, in law, '* cursed :" — thus " cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree !" 
And thus our Savior "v/as made a curse for us," to redeem us from all sin. 2d. It is 
taken for the real and perfect atonement of Christ, because this was fully accomplished 
on the cross. But contrary to the sentiments and faith of the whole christian world, 
the Romish church, makes the "cursed tree," not only " a blessed tree ;" but the 
wood tliereof is a real object of worship, with latria ; " Quia Debetur ei latria." See 
Pontif. Rom. Clem. 8. Roman edit. 1595: folio. Finch, p. 289. 

Here, I shall subjoin a specimen of your prayers offered up to the wood of the 
CROSS. " O Crux, unica spes, &c. O Cross, only hope; hail! in this glory of thy 
triumph, give an increase of grace to the pious, and blot out the crimes of the guilty !" 
Festa Sept. 14. " O bona Crux, &c. O good Cross, who hast obtained comeliness 
and beauty from the Lord's limbs, receive me &c." — Nov. 30th. And many of the 
good citizens 6f New York have witnessed this idolatrous superstition in the elevation 
af tlie Cross ; and its being waved about by a little roguish boy ; as he presented it to 
the prostrate votaries, worshipping a bit of blackened wood! "Behold the wood of 
the Cross!" cries the priest. " Venite, adoremus! Come, let us adore it !" And 
all are on their knees : and happy is that favorite one who can only get near enough to 
kiss it, as he adores it ! ! See Rom. Brev. Sat. of Passion week. There is not a more 
brutish superstition in the annals of paganism ! I challenge any scholar to produce 
its match out of all ancient, or modern heathenism ! 

And the Roman superstition is not confined to priests and old women. The'following 
is tlie prayer of the priest-ridden ex-king, Charles X. of France, at the baptism of the 
Due de Bordeaux in 1821. " Let us invoke for him the protection of the mother of 
God ! the queen of angels ! Let us implore her to watch over his days ; and remove 
far from his cradle, the misfortunes which it has pleased Providence to atllict his rela- 
tives; and to conduct him by a less rugged path to eternal felicity!" Shall I call this 
superstition, or sheer atheism ! It is a fair specimen of the revived Jesuitism of Franco ! 

The next case is that of Ulric, Duke of Brunswick, who in his dotage, took it into 
his head to be — not converted, for the Romish church holds no such doctrine, — but 
" reconciled to the Romish church." Never having known the nature of true religion, 
he was easily seduced by the Jesuits. He wrote a tract called "Fifiy reasons of tlic 

* Tliat is, as papists stale. Wc deny that the venerable Patrick was any such fanatic. In 
fact, ho lived and taii<^ht in Ireland, before popery overran that country. Wo rank him amonj!; 
the pious and orthodox servants of Christ. Jf'e puhllcly deny thit St. Patrlcli mis a papist ! 
The popish "Life" of this holy num, is a disgusting tissue ofnionkisli lictions and talschoods. 



140 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

Dake of Brunswick, for preferring the Roman Catholic rehgion to all other sects.'* 
The following is his last and crowning reason, which I copy literally. It exhibits a 
new specimen of life Insurance! " The catholics, to whom I spoke concerning my 
conversion (to Romanism) assured me" says he, " that if I were to be damned for 
embracing the catholic faith, they were ready to answer for me at the day of judg- 
ment; and to take my damnation to themselves; an assurance I could never extort," — 
adds the Duke very gravely, — " from the ministers of any other sect, in case I should 
live and die in their religion!" See this book recommended by your champion, Dr. 
Milner, Manch. edit. 1802. 

Again : Your doctrine of supererogation is abase, but profitable superstition. Your 
saints can not only keep all the law of God perfectly you say : but even do quite a great 
deal over, and above, what infinite perfection requires. This is "the merits of all 
saints !" It is put, as j^ou gravely teach your disciples, into one grand treasury : arwi 
the pope keeps the key of it : and he deals it out by way of indulgences, absolutions : — 
and for the help of all who have no merit ; but on the contrary, much guilt. No man 
is refused his full share, even to an escape from purgatory, and even from hell : — and 
triumphant entrance into heaven, — on one small condition, namely, that he pay the 
full price fixed by the holy chancery book of the pope ; and the dictation of the priest, 
ill gold and silver ! ! ! Shall I call this superstition ? Or knavery ? Or both ? The 
pope collects All Saints' merit into a fund : and makes sale of it! I gravely ask the 
public if they can name a more barefaced system of knavery, practiced on a poor and 
deluded people, to abstract their money from them, under false pretences ? And espe- 
cially so, when Dr. Varela, uncontradicted by the bishop, and his associates, has pub- 
lished the fact, in a newspaper, "that it is a doctrine of the Romish church, that the 
priests do not know who, or what of their deceased parishioners, are in purgatory!" 
I therefore, respectfully appeal through you, gentlemen, to our fellow citizens, of the 
Roman catholic faith, whether these can be good men, or possessing common honesty 
who avow, that they do not knowivho are in 'purgatory ; and yet take your money in 
large sums for masses to free your deceased relatives from that place ! What do you 
call the men around you, who extort money by false pretences? Look to it. I am 
not your enemy, who put you on your guard ; and tell you, that God Almighty asks 
no money for masses, and for pardoning your sins. Will you believe the priests 
ratlier than God? Go to him alone, through the Lord Jesus Christ, — He offers to do 
it " without money, and without price." See your own Douay Bible, Isaiah 55, 1. 

Finally : — I shall oblige you and my readers, with only one instance more, of the 
incurable superstition of yowc church. I allude to " the feast of asses," — so fa- 
mous in your churches, until the light of "the heretics' " religion drove this relic of 
l^rietsly barbarism, I believe, into oblivion ; — at least I have not heard of your celebra- 
ting it in St. Patrick's, or St. Peter's. 

This festival commemorated the flight of Joseph and Mary into Egypt; but the 
Ass, on which Mary rode, is the most conspicuous personage in the group. Your 
sacerdotal ancestors selected the prettiest young lady in the town w^here the festival 
was held ; she represented Mary : she rode on an Ass in splendid attire ; and superb 
asinine trappings. She rode the Ass into the church, and up to the altar ; high mass 
was then begun : the Ass, as he was taught by his devout compeers, and fellow wor- 
shippers, kneeled down at the altar. After mass, an ode w^^s sung by the priests in full 
chorus TO THE ASS ! ! I shall present a specimen of the original, in Latin and French, 
and then add four stanzas of " the sacred ode" in the Miltonian stvle, in English: — 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



141 



Orientis partibus, 
Adventavit asinus, 
Pulcher et fortissimus, 
Sarcinis aptissimus, 

CHORUS. 

Hez ! Sire Asnes, car chantez, 
Belle bouche rechignez, 
Vous aurez du foin assez, 
Et de r avoine a phanlez. 
Lentus erat pedibus, 
Nisi foret baculus 
Et eum in clunibus 
Pun^eret acuieus. 



CHORUS. 

Hez ! Sire Asnes, car chantez, &c. 
Ecce magnis auribus, 
Subjugalis filius 
Asinus egregius 
Asinorum dominus. 

CHORUS. 

Hez ! Sire Asnes, car chantez, &c. 

Saltu vincit hinnulos, 

Damas et capriolos, 

Super dromedaries, 

Velox Medianeos. 
Hez ! Sn-e Asnes, car chantez, &.c. 



THE TRANSLATION. 

" The Ass did come from Eastern climes ! 

Heigh-ho ! my Assy ! 
He's fair and fit for the pack at all times ! 
Sing, father Ass ! and you shall have grass. 
And hay, and straw too in plenty ! 

" The Ass is slow and lazy too ; 

Heigh-ho, my Assy, 
But the whip and spur will make him go, 
Sing, father Ass, and you shall get grass, 
And straw, and hay too, in plenty. 

*' The Ass was born and bred with long ears ; 

Heigh-ho, my Assy, 
And now the Lord of Asses appears, 
Grin, father Ass, and you shall get grass, 
And straw, and hay too, in plenty. 

'' The Ass excells the hind at a leap, 

Heigh-ho, my Assy, 
And faster than hound or hare can trot, 
Bray, father Ass, and you shall have grass, 
And straw, and hay too, in plenty." 

Here arc beauty, elegance, taste, and devotion combined. I have only to add that 
the jinxiU was exquisite. The service was always closed with a braying match be- 
tween the holy and venerable ])riests in full uniform, around the altar, and the laity, 
ill honor of the ass. The stubborn animal would not regularW unite in their rational 
service, therefore they condescended to his estate. The priests appropriately " repre- 
senting the ass," braj^ed in a fine treble voice, three times. This was replied to by 
tlie devout crowd, who, in full chorus, brayed three times. Then the solemn and as- 
tonished ass, with his devout cortege Avas led away home to his hay and straw. 

No lover of anti((uity, nor modern traveller has yet discovered a parallel to this 
exquisite piece of Roman devotion! 

It is probable, gentlemen, that you may deny the honor of this festival, as you havo 
my other quotations, with your books lying open before the public. But you are per- 
fectly aware that this asinine festival is as real and genuine, as is your mass ! 

I refer you to Du Cange Gloss. Paris Edit, of 1733: vol. iii. 4iiJG. Velly's Hist 



142 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

Du France. Paris Edit, of 1561 ; vol iii. 537. And Edgar's Variations of ^oiperiff 
Dublin Edit. p. 46. See also Recreat. 3Iagaz. Lond. and Bost. Edit. p. 160. 

Lastly : — The Roman catholic system has been sustained by Imposture and Frauds. 
Here I have materials for volumes. I can give only a specimen of gleanings from 
your Roman cathoUc ^vorks. In former ages of your dark system, you studiousI\' 
kept the people in profound ignorance : and thus you carried on the imposture 
with every facility. Hence your sweating images: your weeping images, — tears ran 
down from their eyes in floods! Hence your images which rolled the ej^es and 
shook the head ! At the Reformation when sad havoc was made with these miracle 
makers, several rare specimens were pubhcly exhibited. Instead of brains, these 
Romish idols had springs and complicated machinerv'- to give motion to the eyes and 
to the head, and excite the piety of " the simple faithful." 

In lands purely catholic, the people, when paying for their masses, wish, very 
naturally, to know if the soul has received benefit, and is dehvered : — although father 
Varela has let out a dangerous secret, nemael}- , " that their church teaches that no on€ 
crt" their priests knows what soul is in purgatory." Well, the priest tells "the simple 
faithful," that as long as the soul is not dehvered, — by looking into a httle door in the 
Sacrario, or tabernacle, they can see it, — that is to say, the departed soul, in the farm 
of a mouse ! "VMien it is set free from the purgatorial pains : that is, when all the money 
that can be exacted for masses, is obtained, then the mouse disappears! See Master 
Key, vol, i. p. 168, 170. Contemptible as this may seem to men of taste, yet it is 
what I should call one of the fraternity's more respectable impostmres, in " the mystery 
of iniqtiit}'." 

It is a matter perfectly evident from the records of your Breviary, — and Butler's 
Lives, and the Acta Sanctorum, that your whole system has been carried on in the 
cells of monks and nuns, by one continuous tissue of visions, revelations, and mira- 
cles. The "Religious," as they all misname themselves, spend their time in manu- 
facturing this godly sort of ware, for the common benefit of Holy Mother, and " the 
simple faithful." Miracles are recorded on the pages of Butler's lives, (3 vols. Dub- 
lin Edit.) "as plenty as blackberries." Saints walk like St. Dennis, ^^dthout their 
heads. Devils are discomfited by legions. The dead are raised. The wafer is not 
only converted into Christ's flesh — but is often seen transformed into a Httle babe. I 
invite my Roman cathoHc and Protestant friends to examine Butler's Lives, the most 
accessible of books. I offer it for their inspection : and the Dublin copy of the Car- 
melite scapular. See also the book called " The Frauds of the Monks." 

Again : — Your characteristic talent at cursing and excommunicating, in pontifical 
form, with all its dire effects, has not been confined, in its game, to men and women ! 
For the common benefit of the faithful, it has been successfully fulminated against 
four legged beasts, and creeping things. That is to say, your pontifical wrath has 
been expended not against heretics only ; but against vermine ! WTiat a valuable 
thing a priest is ! ^Vhenever rats, locusts, mice, have overrun fields, the priest in his 
consecrated robes, with the grace of intention, to render the rite all efficient, walks 
over the fields, and sprinkles them, in the form of a cross, with holy water : and so- 
lemnly curses and excommunicates these vermine. In Provence, in France, the 
locust were thus cursed sacerdotally ; but, as my author states, they heeded not the 
holy man, or Holy Mother's fulmination. The pope was informed of their heretical 
obstinacy! His holiness being infalhble, gave a salutary advice to the faithful. 
He ordered the obstinate locust to be again solemnly ctursed — in November. It -wsas 



1 



ftOMAN CATHOLIC CONf ROVERSr. 143 

-punctually done. And lo ! all of them perished in one night, — by tlie frost ! See the 
account of this in Kurd's Hist. p. 229. 

The famous Jesuit Toussain Bridoul, and after him, the well known writer Gavin, 
in his " Master Key of Popery," gives numerous instances of beasts, birds, and bees, 
pausing miraculously, in their gambols, and graver pursuits, " to bow to, and adore 
the Holy Mass ! " Petrus Cluniac, Lib. 1. cap. 1. — with whom, of course, you, gen- 
tlemen, are well acquainted, — gives us some edifying instances of bees adoring, and 
even dying before the Mass ! One instance is this :•— The wafer being conveyed, 
some how or other into the hive, — the bees were found dead, — and in the midst of 
them, the wafer had become an infant Christ!!! I am gravely quoting from your 
own approved author ;— and you know it, if you know any thing of your own minute 
history ! And Cantiprat, Lib. 3. Sec. 1. cap. 40, relates that a hive of bees being 
heard to hymn most harmoniously, — on inspection, the consecrated wafer of the mass 
was found among them, while they were devoutly humming its glory ! Now this 
may seem incredible to many! But 1 have only to say that I copy it out of the 
Roman books. And for my part, I am not surprised that bees should adore the mass ! 
To me it is far more miraculous that a two legged animal, — a man, with a rational and 
immortal spirit should sing its glory ! To me it is far more miraculous that rational 
beings should be able to believe that a priest can create his Creator out of a little wafer, 
— and then — eat up his Creator ! This is matched only by the every day prayers of 
our Eutychian heretics, the priests, who make Mary "the mother of God!" And 
St. Anna "the grand-mother of Almighty God! !" If there be impostures equal tf» 
this in any part of God's dominions, I should be glad to be made acquainted with 
them. What is the reason why I cannot get any one of you, gentlemen, to come out, 
and touch this part of my argument ? The reason is obvious ; you know that what 
I speak is nothing but truth : and you dare not — and you cannot defend these dis- 
gusting—but publicly avowed and believed catholic absurdities ! ! 

You are, of course, gentlemen, well acquainted with the annual miracle of St. 
Januarius at Naples. The blood of this saint is kept in a bottle ; it is usually a crust ; 
but on his day, at the invocation of the faithful, it becomes something dijBTerent in 
the bottle ; — the token of his presence and protection. By the way, he is, you know, 
the guardian against the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius. Well, on a certain day, after 
innumerable ceremonies, of which all pagans of all heathen lands, are innocent, — 
this saint's blood, — if he condescends to be propitious, becomes a bubbling red hquid in 
the priest's hand. Dr. Moore, the father of General Sir John Moore, and the tutor 
of the late Duke of Hamilton — in his "Tour," gives a true and full account of this 
annual ceremony, from ocular inspection. Sometimes the holy saint is rather obsti- 
nate : he will not soften and dilute his own blood, while it is daylight. Towards th<; 
evening, the mob becomes very obstreperous ; and chide the saint in no set phrase ; 
"You sooty, yellow faced old fellow! why will you not yield, and melt at the pious 
invocation of our priests ?" These words Dr. Moore heard uttered. When it begins to 
be conveniently dark^ the blood in the bottle becomes liquid, — the priest proclaims it : — 
then is the boisterous cry of praise heard, in favor of "the beautiful, and fair St- 
Januarius." So much for the saint who takes care of Naples ; and has the charge of 
Mount Vesuvius. It is a pretty, and profitable imposture withal. For money flows 
in plentifully, when the saint yields — that is, melts his crusted blood in the priest's 
bottle, — and the priest's coffers overflow with silver. 

I shall present you another instance of imposture. About seventeen years ago. 



144 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

says an eminent writer in 1820, a lady now living in Edinburgh, was on a visit to her 
Dublin relatives. Through the influence of a Scotch gentleman, she was introduced 
to a popish chapel, on an occasion when a number of souls was to be translated out of 
purgatory. The chapel was brilliantly lighted. The priest who sat in a lofty place 
with a table before him, took care that there should be no exhibition until he was. 
paid. Several of the relatives of the deceased persons, whose souls were to be released, 
rose up, and passing before the priest, each laid down a well filled purse on the table. 
The money being stowed away with a nod of satisfaction, he stated to the audience, 
now on the tip-toe of expectation, that the souls were actually translated, and in evi- 
dence of this, they would soon make their appearance. Instantly a moveable part of 
the floor, a kind of trap-door, communicating, as it were, with the infernal regions of 
purgatory, slowly opened, and there appeared black, burned, brandered, and seared, 
little creatures, crawling heavily and awkwardly out over the slanting board. As they 
began to move about, amid shouts of a miracle, a miracle, the lights were, in order to 
prevent detection, extinguished as if by magic ! The lady who had eyed these suffer- 
ing representatives of troubled souls, being within reach of one of them, slyly picked 
it up in the dark, and conveyed it to her pocket, — for ladies wore pockets in those 
days, — and canied it home : and pulling it out, to the utter astonishment of all, it turn- 
ed out to be A CRAB, in a newly fitted on dress of black velvet! This was communi- 
cated by an eminent clergyman, who had it from the lips of the lady's daughter, who 
carried off* the emancipated spirit! See McGavin's Glasgow Prot. ch. 78. 

I cannot resist telling another, wliich I had from my friend the Rev. W. Wilson, 
residing near Pittsburg, Pa. He had it from an eminent counsellor, who was an eye- 
witness of the scene. In their neighborhood, in Ireland, the heretics had been mak- 
ing dangerous inroads. To check this evil, a miracle was proclaimed ; and it was to 
be no less than the casting the devil out of a maniac ! A stage was erected in a 
field, near a morass ; there sat the bishop and his priests in their robes. Our coun- 
sellor being a Roman catholic, was admitted on the stage. The maniac was brought 
up, in heavy chains, foaming, and screaming, and gnashing his teeth. The form of 
exorcism was duly gone through : all was in painful suspense : the priest officiating, 
then, raising his arms, the right one over the head of the maniac, he cried " Come out 
of him thou devil P^ That moment a black bird, like a raven, issued from the man- 
iac's head ; the chains fell off" as by a charm, and the maniac leaped up full of joy, 
and perfectly restored. The roar of a miracle, a miracle, shouted by the crowd as 
their eyes followed the black devil flying away into the morass, was deafening.— 
" But," — said the sly counsellor, "I saw with my own eyes, the crow come out of the 
priesfs wide sleeve : and every one could see that the chains were so contrived that, by 
touching a spring, they could fall off* instantly." The knave, in a word, acted the 
maniac well ; and was well paid for his pains by the priests. 

I shall conclude with the imposture of St. Peter's chair. "At the extremity of the 
great nave of St. Peter's, Rome, and behind the altar, stands, — or rather once stood — a 
sort of throne," says a late traveller. " This throne enshrines the real, plain, worm- 
eaten wooden chair, in which St. Peter commonly sat, when he was pope." When 
the French under Napoleon visited Rome, not being much disposed towards the faith 
of the simple faithful, they seized this holy relic. Upon a close examination of its 
decorations, certain letters and figures were traced. It was carefully washed from its 
cobwebs and dust; and the sentence copied from the back of " St. Peter's identical 
chair." It was in Arabic character. Alas, for Saint Peter's pontifical'chair. Alas, 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 145 

for tlie pope's infallible succession in this chair. The sentence was translated, papists 
unfortunately for infallibility, — are no scholars in the Oriental languages. — Here is the 
translation, — " There is one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet! .'" It had been a 
sad mistake. Instead of Peter's stool from the older churches ; or his seat at Antioch, 
the ignorant Romanists had plundered a Mohammedan priest of his chair, and thus 
robbed the mosque to decorate Saint Peter's at Rome. Thus, the pope had been sit- 
ting from time immemorial, not in St. Peter's chair, but in a Mufti's chair. And 
hence, as they count their succession by " a chair," the pope has upset his infallibility, 
and derives his legitimate succession from Mohammed. 

I am, gentlemen, yours truly, &c. 

W. C, B. 



On the same day in which the above Letter appeared, the following Notice was 
issued in the same Roman catholic paper, which contained my Letter XL, July 13, 
1833. 

TO DOCTOR BROWNLEE, A PREACHER IN THE MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH. 

Dear Sir — We must again iterate the question proposed to you in the " Truth 
Teller" of last Saturday. 

A proposition was proposed to Preacher Brownlee in our last letter, — " What articles 
of faith, found in the scripture in express terms, must be believed in order to be 
saved?" We expect a direct answer from Preacher Brownlee. No subterfuge. The 
continuation of our controversy with him, personally, will depend on his answer. 

John Power, 

July 5th, 1833. Thos. C. Levins. 



TO DOCTORS POWER, AND LEVINS. 

Gentlemen : — You have honored me with a Card, containing a fresh challenge : 
and in last Saturday's paper, you reiterate it. You could not but be aware when you 
wrote these cards, that your editor had no less than two letters on hand, from me ; 
namely, one to Dr. Varel a; and one to you, in the regular order of discussion. Had 
I been two letters or even one in arrears, you might have had some plausible reason 
for this zeal and impatience. As it is, — I leave the public to judge with what kind of 
grace you make this new and bullying challenge. Your editor keeps up my letters, 
and ludicrously enough offers his columns to you to reiterate fresh calls on me to come 
out! And yet, he gave me his assurance that he would deal fairly. 

Your new challenge is contained in this ungrammatical and blundering card. " A 
proposition is proposed to Preacher Brownlee ; What articles of faith found in the 
scriptures in express terms must be believed in order to be saved? The continuation 
of our controversy with him personally will depend on his answer!" 

One aim you have ever kept in view from the first, in all this discussion; — it i;^ 
this, — to prevent me, by all possible means, from exhibiting in their native doti)rniiiy, 
the dogmas, and rites of your church. For this purpose you adh(Mvd to " the rt//(\" 
and would hear of nothing but " the rule ;" even after its evidence was full, explicit, 
and complete : and after you had exhausted even the last of your borrowed ideas ; and 
spent the last expletive of ferocious vituperation. It is true, you tlioughl you liad 

14 



146 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

caught me in your trap, when I changed my purpose, and agreed to discuss the Hvle* 
But, you were not aware until it was too late, that I had laid a trap for you. You were 
2iot aware that we were, all the while, drawing you out: and setting you before the 
American public, in all the unenviable character of convicted Deists ; more vulgar 
than Paine; and more blasphemous than Voltaire ! I thus succeeded in a double 
object, — namely, the exposure of your corrupt church, and your personal deism ! 

And, now, not yet having found an excuse palpable enough to cover your retreat ; 
you assume an inquisitorial air; and not only dictate to me a subject, which will 
draw me entirely away from that which the public expect and demand from me : but 
you take it on you to declare, that unless my answer shall be precisely according to 
your views, and wishes, you will then retreat, and leave the ground ! 

But 1 call on you to keep strictly to the point under discussion. Upwards of twenty- 
Jive arguments I have had the honor of presenting to your consideration, and that of 
tht3 public; refuting your rule of faith; and exposing the divisions; and novelty of 
your church; her superstitions, fanaticism, and impostures ! None of these have 
been answered. If you do retreat, — I here enter m}'' solemn protest against it, before 
the public, that it can be for no other reason than this, — namely, that you cannot vin- 
dicate your church from one of all these charges ! If you do retreat, I protest that it 
shall be pronounced a public acknowledgment, that popery is indefensible before the 
enlightened American people ! 

In reply, — the articles of faith put forth in express terais in the scriptures, and 
necessary to be believed by us, in order to our salvation, are these : — "Hear O Israel, 
the Lord our God is one Lord." — "There are three that bear record in heaven, the 
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are or<rE." " God sent his 
Son into the world to save us." "Thou art the So7i of God ;" " I and my father are 
ONE." "The son of man came to seek and to save them that are lost." "Jesus the 
(Son, — is the true God, and eternal life." "In the beginning was the Word, and the 
Word was God." "Jesus proceeded forth and came from God." The Holy Ghost 
is God ; "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost? Thou hast 
not lied unto men, but unto God I" " The spirit proceedeth from the Father :" " and 
He is also the Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ." Gal. iv. 6. 

" Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." He that believeth 
and is baptized, shall be saved : he that believeth not shall be damned," " Shew ye 
forth the Lord's death, until he come : " Do this, (celebrate the eucharist,) in remem- 
brance of me." " This is life eternal to know thee the only true God, and Jesusj 
Christ whom thou hast sent." "If thou shalt believe in thine heart, and confess with 
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved." " Except a man be born of the 
water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." "Except 
ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." " AValking in all the commandments and 
ordinances of the Lord blameless," — " thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor, as thyself." " We are justified by 
the faith of Jesus Christ; and not by the works of the law." "By the works of the 
law shall no flesh hving be justified;" that is, before God, our Heavenly Father. 
"By works," the fruits of holiness "is a man justified, and not by faith only," says 
St. James : — that is, before men, we give evidence of justification by our piety and 
holiness. By fauh in " Christ's imputed righteousness alone without works, are we 
justified at the bar of God, in our justification before God. Thus Paul and James are 
•reconciled, and plainly too, even to an infant scholar ! 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 147 

Here is a specimen of the articles in express terms of scripture. I omit, for want 
of room, those about Christ the only king and head of the church ; about " the Man of 
5'm:" and about " the mark of the beast on the forehead, and in the hands" which will 
doom a man to perdition. Now, if we believe these in the heart by the true faith of 
God, the Holy Spirit's operation, and "if we confess them with the mouth we shall 
be saved." And I give them in the express words of God, in his scriptures. And who 
will venture to gainsay the express words of God ? Which of you dare impugn the 
counsels, decrees, and doctrines of the Almighty ? 

And now, having, I hope, fully met your challenge, I demand it, as my right, to go 
on with the main point in hand, namely, the exposure of the old " Harlot, Mother of 
Babylon.''^ And, in courtesy, you will allow me in my turn, to challenge you to fol- 
low me, and my arguments. By the grace of God I shall not retreat. 

I am, gentlemen, yours, &c. 

July 20, 1833. W. C. Brownlee. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIESTS' LETTER XI. 

It opens with a grave discussion on " the gentleman" and " the writer." They admit Dr. 
B. to be " a writer/' but very strongly deny that he is " a gentleman." And they call him 

" A LIAR !" 

"From your gasconade ' challenge^ to the catholic bishop and priests of New York, to the 
1 ast paragraphs, the 'purgatorial crabs' and the 'Mufti's chair,' in your letter No. XI,, there 
are not ten consecutive lines in your eleven letters, that do contain either a deliberate false- 
hood, or a. proofless assertion. This will be amply proved ere the present controversy be 
closed." 

" When wilful falsehood is used by a preacher in the most sacred cause that can be un- 
dertaken by man — Religion : when it is used to subvert the creed of his neighbor, and uphold 
his own, then the strict and honest appellation for this preacher, though he may be a Ches- 
terfield among ^virtuous ladies,' — a liar ; no other word can designate the real character of 
the man!" 

Note : — It is much easier to employ this characteristic vulgarity, than to prove one of our 
arguments a failure, or one of our quotations from Romish books false. 

The following exhibits a specimen of the ludicrous, with a little spice of Jesuitical rancor 
and the repetition of their everlasting '^TUlitudlum.^^ Having mentioned my twenty-five argu- 
ments, they add, — " but there are two of those ' twenty-five arguments' to which the 'chris- 
tian public' should especially attend, as truths of a more eminent order. The first is your 
gross, unchristian, and false charge against the poor catholic servants of this city ; — the other, 
your sanction of the obscene tale, Lorette. But our catholic rule rests as solid in its eternal 
strength, and the walls of St. Patrick's cathedral are as free from fissure as if they had not 
been pelted by the preacher's ' parallel passages' from his ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy 
Ghost.'" 

Note : — I brought no false charges against " catholic servants." I stated facts whioli can 
be established in a court of justice. It was protestant compassion that prevented my friend 
from sending the Ronuin catholic culprit, to Bridewell. And I stated it as a native result of 
the infamous priestcraft tluit wluspcrs the atrocious doctrine of " legal theft," at the con- 
fes.sional. I call the attention, once more, of priests and laymen to L. Mulina, vol. ii. 1150, 
and the extracts from the Jesuit Cardenas : — " Servants may steal secretly from thair masters, as 
much as tJw.y jud<rcJLlieir labor is iporth, more than the xcages which ihcy receive." It would secure 
the public safety, and preserve the purity of morals, if the " holy priests," who instil this 
immoral and dangerous doctrinC; into the minds of " silly women, laden with iniquity," ut 



148 ROMAN CATHOLIC CO>'TROV£RSr. 

the confessional, were they committed to Bridewell, instead of their less guilty victims. — To 
these charges I have thus presented facts, and unquestionable extracts from their own 
books. 

I ought not to omit, that it is ludicrous to enrol "this charge against the poor servants. " 
and my " sanction of Lorette" among the twenty- arguments against the priests' rule I 

Having run over their endless repetitions against the holy Bible, our only rule of faith 
they arrive in their second column, at their old quarters, thus : — 

•• Therefore, your rule of faith leads directly and necessarily to Deism and Infidelity 
Thus. Rev. Preacher and erudite in the '-Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost," is the 
'■hook in your nose.'' 

Having spent a quarter of a column in defending their ungrammatical and blundering 
card, they notice the feast of asses, evidently no novelty to them: and they invite Dr. B. " a^ 
possessing eminent qualifications to join in the procession of the next feast of asses around St. 
Patrick's cathedral. '^ But they do not specify whether he is 'to bray, in treble, with the holy 
priests : or in solemn bass, to bray with the priest-ridden laity !" 

There next follows an expression of amazement at our creed, expressed, in substance, in 
scripture language, in our card. Why, exclaim they, the Arians believe as much ! The 
Nestorians believe as much, the Pelagians, the Eut^'cians, who confound Christ's ticonatwrcs 
nto one, and make a female the mother of the Deity, — why they all believe as much '. " In 
he name of common sense can this be your creed ?"' 

Note. They should have added, — and they all professed to believe the same Bible, 
thei-efore we should throw it away. They all used human clothing and human food; there- 
fore, to be utterl}- at antipodes v.ith them, and to have no communion with them, we ought 
to reject both the one, and the other 1 

Tiiey close the Letter ■v\'ith anew demand, — too simple to attain their object, which they 
never lose sight of, namely, to turn us aside from our purpo-e. — ••What article of catholic 
faith is contradicted by the express texts of scripture, inserted in your new creed ? Let tliis be 
noted by your christian public." 

Sole. I reply, — all the peculiar tenets of popery, saint and image worship, the neic 
mediators, and mediatrices, the mass, which takes the place of our Lords atonement; holy 
uatcr, 3ind purgatory, which take the plaee of the Holy Spirit, and his influences; covftssion. 
and absolution, in which a wretched priest thrusts himself into the place of Him, even " God 
who, alone, can pardon sins ;" the ghostly supremacy of the pope, who usurps the throne of 
Him who ""lias all poicer in heaven, and in earth;" infallibility assumed by a vicious and pol- 
luted priestliood, — from the pope, down to the uneducated priest, who knows not mumpsimus 
from sumpsimus,"^ in his own Vulgate, — as it thrust itself into the judgment seat of God 
Almiifhty, — are all opposed to, and contradicted by, these texts. The sword of the Spirit 
aims a decisive blow at the head, and the heart of the Apocalyptic B-^ast ! And with these, 
every limb, to the remotest extremity, must die ; and die to live no more I 



• A certain zealous Roman catholic priest in the days of the immortal Reformer, Luther, was ab.«olutely so 
rude and illiterate, that he had, for thirty years, read mumpsimcs, for the Latin word si mpsimus. When the 
Reformer reproved the barbarism, and offered to put him right, he eave this truly orthodox answer, according 
to the standard of the unreformable court of RomCj and popery, — " It may be so 1 But I shal not give up 5Jy 
old MUMPSIMUS, for vour new soipsimvs '.'' 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 149 

LETTER XII. 

TO DRS. POWER, AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 

'" Sic et Babylon apud Johannen, &c. Thus also Babylon is, in our John, a figure of the 
■eity of Rome ; which is great and proud in empire ; and a subduer of the saints." 

Tertullan. 

Gentlemen : — ^We have shown that the Roman catholic religion is not found in 
the Bible ; that, in fact, the whole system is irreconcileable with the word of God. 
We have also finished our discussion on the superstition, fanaticism, and impostures of 
the Romish church, and clergy. The subject which now claims our attention in the 
natural order of logical dependence, is that of the notes, or marks of the Roman catho- 
lic church. 

It is well known to those who are familiar with Romish books, or have intercourse 
with Roman catholic priests, and laity, that " Holy Mother church" is the main 
object of their faith. That sect has so completely apostatized from the truth, that it 
seems actually to have no idea of saving " faith in God, and in Christ." Justification 
by faith in Christ, and the renovation of the heart by the Holy Spirit, are. doctrines 
which form no part of their system. They "believe in Holy Mother church." 
They receive, by faith, all that she teaches : they only aim at dying in her bosom ; 
this is all the justification, and all the sanctification they look for. " The temple of 
the Lord! The temple of the Lord, are these!" This is as often and as sincerely 
repeated by the Romish sect, as it ever was by the Jews of antiquity. They have, in 
fact, publicly assumed the very ground, which the apostate Jews took, against our Lord 
and his kingdom. They not only crucify him afresh in every repetition of the Mass ; 
but they say we are the children of " Holy Mother Church ;" we are of "her who is 
the immutable church;" we are of her to whom the Lord gave the promise that "the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against her." This promise which our Lord gave to 
his pure, holy, and only church, they insultingly and arrogantly appropriate to them- 
selves; even as did the persecuting and murderous Jews. The latter said "We be 
Abraham's children !" and they gravely inferred that the Almighty was bound, in 
virtue of that, to save them, vicious and apostate as they were. The former, tiie Ro- 
mish sect, say — " We are of Holy Mother !" And let their character be what it may : 
though they are at war with God's law, and are rebels against all our Lord's offices, 
rejecting him as a prophet, by their traditions and infidel rule of faith ! rejecting him 
as a priest in each renewed rebel act of the mass, which they call a sacrifice for the 
quick and the dead ! rejecting him as the only king in Zion, by the blasphemous 
supremacy of the pope! though they practice all vices, and sell even publicly, as at 
vendue, the pardon of sins, past, present, and future; yet because they are of "Holy 
Mother," and are in her bosom, they shall all be saved ! And no human being out of 
her pale, are, or can be saved ! 

Hence we hear tlic Roman catholic priests and laity pronouncing the solemn dotjui 
of perdition on all men, — themselves only excepted, who are the exclusive favorites 
of heaven. To their partizans in iniquity, they say, as men who have taken the 
keys of the kingdom out of the hands of him who alone can bear ihcm and 
^ield them, — "If you die in Holy Mother's" bosom at last, it is no matter what 
you have been, or have done, or wliat you now are: you arc safe ! Wo are the onli/ 
church: and the gold and silver, paid for "absolution" and "extreme unctiou," 

14* 



150 R0MA5 CATHOLIC COI^TRO VERST. 

wash away siiis ! And as a tokeu of this, tlie priest, counterfeiting as much gravity 
as possible, wraps up his deluded votary in a rag of old " Holy Mother's" tattered gar- 
ment : then he dictates a certificate to God the judge, that this said rag of the Roman 
'•Harlot," is the very robe of the Redeemer's righteousness: and all the church dues 
being paid, he must, of course, acquit him, at the priest's bidding! And why ? Be- 
cause God had given an assurance to his true church — not at all to the Roman apos- 
tacy, — that what she "bound on earth" by way of wholesome discipline, "he should 
bind in heaven." 

From all tliis it must be obvious, whh what anxiety the Roman cathoUc priests 
endeavor to establish the truth of their church, by certain marks. The most promi- 
nent of these are antiquity, catholicity, succession, iiniiy. &c. These we are now to 
discuss. 

First: — antiquity. — There are few points by which the public have been more 
imposed on, than by this claim : " The church of Rome is of the ancient religion." In 
tlie ears of the superficial and weak, this claim of "the old rehgion," sotmds as a 
resistless charm. "It is the oZJ religion." And from this they draw an inference 
befitting men who neither think, nor reason. Instead of listening to evidence and argu- 
ment as proof of the utter apostacy of Romanism : and, thence, justly inferring that 
the " age and antiquity" of a rotten carcass only make it infinitely more rotten •, they 
profoundly and very logically conclude that the antiquity of corruption makes it 
sweet and good ! "It is the old religion," say they, without stopping to listen to 
the proof that " Old Mother" has been dead and buried; though pagan-like, she has 
been set up in her grave clothes, to receive the worsiiip of her children. iVnd because 
they deem her the " old religion," therefore she is the only true religion. And the 
name " Protestant," being a new name — some two or three hundred 3'ears old, — there- 
fore the religion presented under that new name, is new, and a false religion. The 
public mind must be disabused on this point. And for this purpose I beg your atten- 
tion to a two-fold sophism in this universal cant of papists about their antiquity. 

1st. Antiquity is no evidence when taken alone, of the truth of a theory. Sin and 
error are as old as Adam. Does that ripen and mellow them into God's truth ? The 
kingdom of Satan is considerably older than even that of Rome, and the popery there- 
of. If popery be true from its antiquity, much more so is the kingdom of Satan, the 
reign of the truth. The Ptolemaic system of astronomy, which placed the earth in 
the centre, and made the sun and worlds move, as it were, round a grain of sand, is 
far more ancient than the Copemican : and therefore, by Romish dialectics, conse- 
crated to the defence of" Holy 3Iother," the former system is true, and the Newtonian 
system is false ! Sir Isaac Newton's philosophy is new ; it is only some hundred 
years old. Therefore the systems of Egypt, and the dark ages, are the true philoso- 
phy ; and Sir Isaac is an impostor like Lutlier ; and his system, like the Reformation 
is falsehood ! 

'2. Another portion of your sophistry lies here: the Roman priests designedly con- 
found the name of " Protestants,'' with the system of religion, which they maintain. 
And, thence, in true Romish logic, they conclude that because the name ^^Protest- 
ant,'" bestowed on the Reformers, in consequence oftheir solemn Prof e^f and appeal 
to a general council, against the decree of Charles V., and the Diet of Spires, in A. D. 
1.529, — is a new and recent name, therefore their religion is no older than the name ! 
Now let us try the force of this delectable Romish logic. '^'Ireland'" is a name of 
modern date : only some few centuries old. Before this, it was called Hibernia. But 



EOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



151 



because the name is a few centuries old, it follows by the certainty of our Romish logic, 
that the thing itself, — even the Emerald Isle is a mere novelty, and had only a recent 
existence! "Great Britain" is a new name; it used to be called "Albion;" — in 
short, England, Scotland, France, America itself, are all new and modern names : 
and as, by the Romish dialectics, the name and the thing designated by it, are of 
equal date in duration ; therefore, these countries only began to exist when they got 
these modern names ! ! 

In my letter VIII. I examined the maniac logic of the priests. We showed that 
the Romish church wants the essential marks of the true church. I then offered ten 
proofs in evidence of the historical fact, that the Romish church and her characteristic 
sj^stem are a mere novelty ; invented chiefly after the sixth century, by wicked men 
and despots ; and the very master piece of satan and priestcraft! These we sustained 
by appeals to historical documents. And if silence be consent, then have the priests 
given me their unlimited assent to each and all of these ten arguments ! On this 
mark of their church, I need not long insist. I shall only observe, in brief, that the 
great fundamental tenet of Romanism, — namely, the supremacy of the Pope, or of 
the church, is a mere novelty in the history of the church. Pope Zozimus in A. D. 
420 seems to have been the first who attempted to set up certain claims of supremacy 
for the Roman See, over all other churches in the West. And this he tried to esta- 
blish by an impudent forgery of some decrees, purporting to be the decrees of the 
council of Nice ; in which he had caused it to be written "that it was lawful to ap- 
peal to Rome, from other churches." The famous Milevitan council in Africa, of 
whom your own St. Augustine was a leading and faithful member, opposed and con- 
demned these impious claims of the Pope. They even sent a special embassy into the 
East, to obtain from the Greek church attested copies of the acts of the council of Nice. 

And by these copies they publicly convicted the popes of Rome, even "the infalli- 
ble" Zozimus and his "infallible" successors, of falsehood, fraud, and forgery! I 
shall give you the words of this council, which solemnly denied and repelled the 
pope's claims of supremacy, so late as the fifth century : — " Q,uod si ab eis, &c. But 
if they, (the clergy) think it necessary to appeal from them, they shall appeal only to 
African, Councils, or to the primates of their provinces. If any one shall appeal be- 
yond the seas, let him be received into communion by none in Africa." The signa- 
ture of St. Augustine is the fourth to this solemn decree. Sec Mansi Council. Col- 
lect. Tom. 4. p. 507. Venet Edit. 1785. Finch, p. 15G. 

And so late as A. D. 590, Pope Gregory I. declares the apostle Peter " not to be 
the head, but only a member of the church." See Regist. Lett. Tom. 2, p. 743. 
And again, "I confidently say that whosoever calls himself universal bishop, or de- 
sires to be called so, is, in his })ride, the forerunner of Antichrist,''^ &c. See Lib. 7. 
Indie. 15. Ei)isf. 33. Bedict. Edit. Paris, 1705. In anotlier place, he affirms that the 
" three bishoprics of Alexandria, and Antioch, and Rome," are from the same Peter, 
" which is of one, but in three places, — i\ux in tribus locis unius est." Tom. ii. p. 
887. 

It was not until the days of Boniface IIL A. D. 600, that the pope was raised to the 
supremacy o( universal bishop. And this was done, not by the will of God, but by 
ihc civil i)owcrof the ferocious tyrant Phocas, who murdered the king his master, and 
by murder and treason, usurped tlie imi)erial throne. And even this supremac}', ob- 
tained by the most atrocious means, extended to the /rc^/rrn churches only. Tho 
Eastern, and the Greek churches stood out against papal usurj)aiion, and do resist you 



152 ROMAZf CATHOLIC CONTROVERSt. 

unto this da}\ Now, this supremacy, partial and sectarian as it was, being the device 
of the poUtical Judas, called Phocas, at the instigation of Western schismatics, in the 
geventh centun,% where is the boasted antiquity of the Roman catholic sect ? I venture 
to say that no well read Jesuit can refrain from laughter, without an unusual eflfoit, 
even while he is putting forth this kna^ish claim of antiquity ! 

The MASS, the grand arcanum of Roman craftiness, the subUme creature of priest- 
craft, which lays golden eggs, can boast of no great antiquity. This fiction was, after 
many a struggle, established in the bosom of Holy Mother, in A. D. 1215; and con- 
sequently it is now only six hundred and nineteen years old. And I incite any priest, 
well versed in the history- of the church, to prove any thing to the contrar}'. 

Auricular co>"rESSio:y, one of the main springs of ghostly power; the copious 
source of wealth ; and of all possible wickedness, was finally established b}' Pope 
Innocent III., in the beginning of the thirteenth century-, and is no older than the 
Mass. 

PuRGATORT, notwithstanding the golden har^'ests which it was foreseen to afford 
*'Holy Mother," is of a quite recent date. It required all the darkness of the dark 
ages to brutalize sufficiently the human mind, in Europe, for its faith and reception. 
The priests had long labored by pious frauds, and miracles, and visions, it is true, to 
establish the lucrative fiction. But maugre all their influence, it was really not 
elevated into a proud article of faith among the simple faithful, until A. D. 14-30. This 
was done by the notorious council of Florence. It is, therefore only 404 years old! 

The creation and invocation of saints have long been another profitable affair in 
your church. In order to make the maniifactor}- of this ware profitable, there must 
he invocation. Pope Clement XI. created four saints in one day, namely, Pius V ; 
Andrew of Aveline ; Felix of Cantalice ; and Catharine of Bologna, for each of which 
he received 100,000 crowns I Here the spiritual job brought him 400,000 crowns, in 
a couple of hours ! Yet notwithstanding the Romish eflTorts in behalf of this lucrative 
dogma, the invocation of saints was not fixed, as an anicle of faith, until the ninth 
centur}- 1 

But we must cut short our details. The use and worship of images were condemn- 
ed so late as A. D. 700, by the council of Constantinople. In the ninth century, the 
darkest hour of the darkest ages, they were finally set up by impiety and imposture, 
as objects of worship in your church. Telesphorus invented and brought in the Len- 
ten feasts. CalLxtus instituted, by arbitrary power, the four ember fasts of the year, 
Hyginus exerted his genius in inventing the "sacred chrism or oil.'' The marriage 
of priests was finally prohibited b^-Pope Gregory' YJI. near the close of the eleventh 
centur}-, say A. D. 1070. And the abstraction of the cup from the eueharist, or the 
communion ^-ithout tcine, after it had been forged, and invented by impostors ; and 
opposed by Pope Gelasius, was finally decreed by the council of Constance, which 
met in A. D. 1414. And it is therefore, an imposition only 420 years old I 

And it is due to truth, to observe here, that all these papal innovations, now alluded 
to, and more fully narrated in my Letter A'lIL, were not quietly permitted to usur]3 the 
throne of Christ our Lord, and displace his doctrines. On each one of them there 
was a struggle before the arch-deceiver prevailed. I ana prepared to produce fromjive 
to seventeen of the best of the fathers against each one of these innovations of Rome. 
The want of room only, prevents me from quotingthem. St. Augustine with Jerome,, 
who called Rome " the great Babylon," and St. Ambrose, take the lead. Every Ro- 
man priest has read of the two " thunderbolts of war" against Romish impositioiLs>— 



Roman catholic coNTfioVERst. 153 

iaameiy, Bertram, and Berringer, who, in the days of Gregory VII. called also by the 
more emphatic and appropriate name of " Hellbrand," impugned the idolatrous fiction 
o£ the mass. Who has not read the immortal Robert Grosthead, the Roman cathoHc 
bishop of Lincoln, sirnamed the pounding Hammer of the Romish beast ? Who ha& 
not heard of Gallus, and Petrarch, and a host of others : and in later times of Claude, 
and Nicholas Clemangis? 

On the contrary, every peculiar doctrine, and rite of ancient Christianity, as our 
Lord revealed it in the holy scriptures, have been religiously believed, and professed by 
the Protestant church of the Reformation. Call us by any name you elect : call us 
Protestants ; or the children of the old Italick church, or Waldenses, or Albigenses ; or 
Bohemian brethren ; or Lollards; or Huguenots; or the associates of Luther ; or Cal- 
vin; or Zuingle; or Knox. We hold up to public view " The syntagmata Confts- 
sionum,^^^ '* the collection of the Confessions" of the Reformed Church. On every 
doctrine, and sacrament of the pure primitive and apostolical Christianity, all the 
" Reformed churches," are entirely at one. Not so in Rome ; every essential doctrine, 
and the two sacraments are buried, and utterly lost in the rubbish of " Babylon the 
Great!" 

And were we even to outrage truth and historical evidence, by admitting the Romish 
church to be a true church of Christ, can any man be so stupid as not to know thait 
the church at Jerusalem, the Syriac church, which Dr. Buchanan found existing in 
the interior of India, are far more ancient than that of Rome? Can any man 
be so ignorant of historical truth as not to know that the churches of Egypt, particu- 
larly that of Alexandria; and the church of Antioch, and the whole Greek church, are 
more ancient than that of Rome. Nay, every sensible man knows that the old 
Italick church was before the church of Rome, as she now is, being the same in doc- 
trme and rites as the "apostolic church g,f-Rome." The arguments, therefore, of the 
Roman writers on this point, arc not oply vicious sophistry, but false in fact. 

S5d, Catholicity, — The term Catholic, a Greek -vvord, signifies general or univer-^. 
gal. And the Roman church claims the exclusive use, and honor of this title. They 
are the catholic, the universal church. 

When applied to the church of Christ, "which he bought with his own blood;" as it 
is appropriately used in the creed, " I believe in the holy catholic church," the Protest- 
ants understand it thus : — It takes in all those who are, or shall be in the kingdom of 
God above. "The church," says St. Jerome, "does not consist of walls, but of 
true doctrine. W^herever the true faith is, there the church is." Oper. vol. vii. p. 388. 
" The church of Christ," says St. Augustine, — "is in the saints : the church of Christ 
is in those who are written in heaven: — the church of Christ is in those who do not 
yield to the temptations of the world." Oper. Tom, iv. Expos, of the 47th Psalm. 
Again, says he, on the 62 Psalm, — " Christ's whole (catholic) church, which is 
spread every where, is his body, of which he is the Head." In the same sense do all 
Protestants correctly use the term. The church catholic includes all who are now in 
glory out of our ransomed family: all who are noiv in Christ by faith; ami all wlu) 
shall be in him, the Head of us all. 

But the Romish sectarians arc about as modest as some of the EnsUMii princes, 
who gravely claim dominion over sun and moon ; and derive titles from those cxtcn-. 
eive and "catholic" dominions, in the heavens! They are the " cathi)lic," the 
^'universal" church! They have fiyo arguments to sustain this romanJic claim.— 
1st. The apostles gave thcni the exchisive name of catholics. I shall (juotc their owa 



154 ilOMAN CAtHOLiC CONTROVERStT. 

words; for it explains the singular reason why neither in Rome, nor in New York/ 
tiie priests ever call themselves christians. " When heresies sprang up, — the name 
christian was too common to sever the heretics from the true faithful men : hence the 
apostles by the Holy Ghost, imposed the name catholic on those who are obedient to 
the (Roman) church's doctrines." See Rhem. Annot. on Acts xi. 26, and 1 John ii. 
2. and Bell. De Eccles. iv. 4. That is to say, — for this Romish mysticism needs a 
translation, — the apostles who wrote the scriptures in Greek, and who, themselves, 
belonged principally, and especially to the Syriac and Greek churches, without any 
command from heaven, gave to an obscure Jewish assembly of christian converts at 
Rome, consisting probably, at that time, of a few hundred, the title of" The univer- 
sal church of Christ /" 

You may gravely ask where any one can find the command, if any ever was giv- 
en; or where any statement is made in civil history, authorizing the belief, that the 
apostles of our Lord, in the midst of the great and flourishing churclies of the East, 
such as those of Syria, and Egypt, and Greece, took it solemnly into their heads to 
bestow the title of " church universal or catholic," on a few obscure christians in 
Rome ! I answer no one has been yet bold enough to risk his character in asserting, 
with proofs out of ancient documents, that the apostles did so. The simple word of 
llie interested " infallible," is all that has been pleaded. But if there be no weight in 
the estimation of all who do not believe by proxy — there is a second argument resort- 
ed to by the romantic advocates of popery. '* They are the catholic or universal 
church,''^ say they — "because in respect of time, place, and person, the Roman 
church has always been in the world ; in all countries in the world : and has flourished 
in all nations!" That is to say — for this needs a friendly exposition : " The Romish 
church has always been in the world," — except Vvhen the Jewish church existed; — 
which was before the Romish church had a being! " The Roman church has aluxtys 
been in the world :" That means for a few centuries ! " The Unman church has 
been in all countries, in all the world," That is, except in Asia, and Africa, and the 
greater part of America, and some of the most extensive empires of Europe. " The 
Roman church has flourished in all nations. Except England, Scotland, Holland, 
Ireland, Denmark, Russia, Prussia, all Asia, all Africa. " The 1\ man church takes 
in all people." Yes, except about eight hundred millions out of 7??,.2 hundred millions 
of the human family. "The Romish church will o/tyai/s be in i lie world," except 
from the close of the 1260 years, and the whole period of millenium, when she will 
be annihilated by a catholic overthrow. 

Such are the ludicrous and maniac claims of this sect of schisn-r^iics, to catholicity, 
or universality ! The person who does not see the absurdity of ihis, most assuredly 
merits our pity and compas.-5ion. The claim of " catholicity" in fact, sets all sober 
reason utterly at defiance. The pope, prelate, or priest, who sol ^d}^ claims ihe title 
of "catholic" for his sect, must either be forsaken of reason ann - <.mmon sense, and 
thence be a maniac : or which we believe to be the truth of the t :i^e, he acts the im- 
postor and knave. And, conscious of the ridiculous nature of his claims, like the char- 
latan, he advances them with an unblushing* impudence to ehrat his votaries into 
compliance, by his lofty and swelling words of vanity, merely to advance his own 
interests, in his pretensions to ghostly and temporal power. "A f*. man catholic!" 
That is to say, in plain Enghsh, " a particular general!" "A Ron. m catholic." Thai 
is to say, — the little affair called " Rome," is all Syria, all Greece, all Asia, all 
Europe, all America! "A Roman catholic!" That is to say, the little comer 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONtiEiOVfiRSir. 155 

a^d nook of ^^Rome,^* is catholic, — is all the world, all the universe! And the few 
bigotted dogmas, invented by the most worthless of men, for the most infamous of 
ends, namely the extinction of religion and civil liberty, form the whole religion 
of the whole world ! 

" Oh ! judgment, thou hast fled to brutish beasts, 
And men have lost their reason." 
The church catholic and universal is — we repeat it, — a glorious assembly. It 
embraces all those who are now in heaven ; or on the earth, walking in the unity of 
tlie spirit, in the beauty of holiness, and the bond of peace : or who shall yet, in due 
time, be united to Christ; and shall ere long, reach "the general assembly, and 
church of the first born." But what man, in the sober exercise of his reason, did ever 
apply this title of the "church universal" to a sect of ajpostates from Christ ; con- 
temptible even in point of numbers, compared with the great mass of the human 
family, who composed the true church of the Jews : and the true church of the New 
Testament. A sect, moreover, which has filled the ears of all good men with 
direful rumors ! A sect which has made the very heavens re-echo with the horrid 
cries of treason, rebellion, and crime ! A sect which has drenched the earth with the 
blood of sixty-eight millions of human heings, whom it has sacrificed on the altar 
of its bloody and horrid superstition. 

It deserves to be noticed here that various sectaries, besides the Roman church, 
have affected to call themselves " catholic ;" and to boast of their numbers. For 
instance, the Donatists did so, in the days of St. Augustine. See Aug*. Epist. 48- 
The Pelagians also set up claims to this inordinate title ; as appears from St. Jerome, 
Lib. 3. Advers, Pelag. " Quid si te alius catholicum dixerit, &c." Wliat if another 
call thee catholic ? Shall I give consent?" 

But it is remarkable that neither they, nor, as I have just observed, the Roman 
catholics, have ever adopted the holy and honourable name of Christian! It can be 
shown from respectable authors, and it is an extraordinary fact — that the Romish 
priests, from time immemorial, have despised this venerable and divinely appointed 
name. "It is notoriously known, that in Italy, and at Rome, the most honourable 
name of Christian, is actually a name of reproach; and usually it is abused to signify 
a fool, or a dolt! see Christ. Franch. coll. Jesuit, near the end ; and Fulk's Refuta- 
tion of the Rhem. Annotators. Acts xi. 26. And in our day, if any humble soul 
should happen to stumble into Rome, the See and country of the Antichrist, and should 
venture to call himself a Christian, in what may be termed the second rate society, of 
archbishops and bishops, — he would be received with peals of laughter and merriment, 
as some antideluvean creature ! But if he avowed himself, in the simplicity of his 
soul, to be a Christian in the Pope's presence, before his godly court of cardinals, he 
might deem himself fortunate if he escaped a dungeon, or assassination. 

I cannot close without observing another material evidence against your claims to 
" catholicity." These claims are not only illegal, absurd, and contrary to historical 
evidence; but actually contrary to the doctrine of Christ and the sentiments of your 
best fathers. " Fear not little flock," said our Lord : " Many are called, few are cho- 
sen." And St. Jerome writing against the clabns to catholicity, set up by the 
Pelagians, says in his third book against llicm; "The multitude of your feUows doth 
not, therefore, prove you a catholic ; but rather a heretic." See also S(. Auguslinr, 
De Pastaribus. And one of the more sensible of your Popes, namely, Niohohis I. in 
his Letter to the Emperor Michael, says, — " A small company hinders not, wliere 



156 R0MA5 CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

piety aboundeth: neither does a great company further, where impiety abounds: glory 
not for the multitude, for not the multitude, but the cwse justifeth, or condemneth:'' 

Finally ; — From the sixth centur}-, no one of your advocates can establish any true 
claim of coanection, on your part, as a church, with the church of Jesus Christ. The 
Eastern churches indisrnantly cast off yr)ur infamous usurpations, over them : so also 
did the African church, widi your own St. Augustine at their head. You have been 
continually diverging from the good old church of God at Rome : and the good old 
Italick church, from whom our pure and holy forefathers, the Waldenses and Albi- 
genses proceeded. You, like Islimael, are against ever}' section of the church of 
Christ : and ever\' church against you. You are no longer the pure river of God wa- 
tering the earth ; but the sluggish and muddy bayou, bursting forth from the majestic 
and chrystal river of God ; and threading 3-our way, amid the putrid exhalations and 
swamps of a Dead Sea ; sending forth, to an immeasurable extent, moral pestilence, 
and death, over the nations. 

On the whole, the Protestant faith is not only the most ancient, but the most true cath- 
olic faith. With the church of God in all ages; with them on earth: and with them in 
heaven, we are perfectly at one, on every doctrine, and on each of the sacraments, 
which have characterized the church, the chaste spouse of Christ. We, therefore are, 
of the true catholic church of Christ, — you are the Roman cathohc church of Anti- 
christ. We move forward under the pure white flag of the Redeemers standard; the' 
true, cross of our Blessed Redeemer: you move on in darkness and in blood, under 
the standard of your prince, Abaddon, "your king, the angel of the bottomless pit."' 
But I must nause. I am, srentlemen, yours, &c. 

W. C. B. 



CARD. 

It is necessary to remind my readers that the priests, in their second challenge 
chose to make it a condition of their continuing the controversy, that I should aban- 
don the attack on their system, and defend the Protestant system. I promptly 
declined obedience to this unreasonable dictation, being determined to force my way 
into their verj' citadel, and into the interior of the "chambers of imagery." They 
declined publishing any reph'- to me, last Saturday. Having prepared the 
preceeding letter, I sent a card on Monday morning to Mr. Denman, editor of the 
Roman catholic print, requesting him to say whether I was correct in understanding, 
the information conveyed to me from his office, through my friend Mr. T. ; namely 
that no more was to be pubhshed by him on either side. In reply to this Card, I 
received a letter, abusive and insulting; while the \sTiter took care to answer me 
neither negatively nor affirmatively. I replied by again soliciting a definite answer, 
whether he would allow me to go on as usual, in his Columns. I waited two hours 
and a half for his reply ; none came. I then entered into arrangements to have my 
letters published simultaneously, in the three papers which have hitherto copied them 
from the Roman catholic print ; and, at the time, sent a copy of uiy letter XII. to the 
office of the Roman catholic paper. And it is proposed, by the grace of God to follow 
up the retreat of the priests, by a letter ever}^ second week, until the end of August : 
and then by a short letter weekly, until the ^^ctory shall be complete. 

W. C. B. 



HOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 157 

In The Truth Teller of August 3, appeared this Editorial Notice. 

'"' Dr. Brownlee has sent us the following communication as his answer to Drs, Power 
and Levins' Letter No. 12, published in our last. We consent as a matter of courtesy to its 
appearance — and also to gratify Dr. Brownlee whose private communications to the editor 
for publication, are of th« most urgent nature. In complying with Dr. Brownlee's solicit- 
ations we must here state, that unless he will confine himself to the topics under discussion 
we must close this controversy." 

This " communication" was nothing more than the introduction to my Letter XIL, which, 
by a. private message, I had begged the editor of the R. catholic print, to place at the head of 
the manuscript Letter, which had been some time in his hands. It follows : — 



TO DRS. POWER, AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 

Gentlemen : — I have carefully read your 12th letter on the 27th of July. You are heartily 
welcome back again after your temporary retreat. Stand to your post, I exhort you, as good 
Romans ; we are only beginning the tug of war. But seriously, I thank you for your letter. 
It helps on my cause marvellously. What a miserable cause must yours be, when Bishop 
Dubois's THREE sclcct champions can venture out, before an American public, with such a 
production as this ! Hence I thank you for it ; it establishes with fresh evidence, all I have 
advanced relative to your deism. The evidence is now full and running over. 

I agree with you, also very cordially, in believing that no small degree of degradation 
attaches itself to the labor of detailing out of your books, the accounts respecting " the Duke 
of Brunswick ;" " and St. Patrick's miracle," and " St. Dennis carrying his own head, after 
he was beheaded," — " and your Du Cangis' account of your feast of the Asses," and the 
true "accoimt of the purgatorial crabs, with their velvet coats," and "St. Peter's chair 
plundered from a Mufti's mosque." I admit that it is degrading in your historians to detail 
them. And one really feels himself lowered to be compelled to quote such trash ! But then 
what must be the infinitude of the degradation of the "infallible pope," and the "infallible 
church," and of the " infallible priests of Rome," who have gravely recorded ail this impo- 
sition, in their devotional books, — ay, in their Breviary ; and do solemnly command their 
votaries to believe it all, on pain of damnation ! Yes, hypocrisy will affect to deny all 
these ! You even affect, in matchless assurance, to treat them as fictions! This is pure 
homage to our enlightened American public; and an item of that Jesuitism, by which all 
Roman priests are sworn to conceal their real tenets and rites, from the eyes of protcstants 
and republicans. You and your bishop know that if you were in Italy, or in Spain, and 
ventured on the disbelief of these miracles ; or even the affectation of ridiculing them be- 
fore enlightened men: — yes, if you were heretic enough, in Spain, to smile at the headless 
St. Dennis carrying his head under his arm; or at the edifying tales of other saints sailing 
over the sea, on their cloaks, with their companions for ballast, — you would forthwith be 
the inmates of dungeons ; and escape burning only by a well timed recantation on your 
knees ! 

Your ultra " zealotry," is "ambitioning" too much, to use your classic style, when you 
find fault with my scriptural creed ; or indeed any christian creed. The religious public can- 
not but smile at three men, publicly convicted of open and avowed deisin, affecting to sit in 
j udgment on a christian creed ! 

In fine, as there is not a new idea in all your letter; and as I have proposed (o niysclf to 
go forward into " Holy Mother's" chambers of inuigery, oven wore its oiitranco giuuHlod by 
Cerberus, with its three lioads. I shall go on with the regular discussion. 

This letter was published in the Christian Intelligencer of last Saturday : to which we 
refer the readers of the Trutli Teller. 

W. C. Brownlee.'" 
15 



153 ROMAN CATHOLIC COXTROVEllST. 



A CARD.— To THE Public. 

The editor of the Roman catholic print called "the Truth Teller," lias now in his handf^ 
TWO letters from me, which he has refused to publish : namely, one addressed to Dr. Varela, 
designed to expose the impiety and blasphemy of the title '' the Mother of God,'^ which the 
Romish sect has invented, and long used in its idolatrous worship of the Virgin Mary: the 
other, is my twelfth letter to the Rev. Drs. Power, Varela, and Levins. He has assigned ik) 
reason why he refuses to publish the^rst. He seems to offer two reasons for refusing Ici 
publish the last. First, he aftects to refuse its admission into his columns, because it appeared 
in other papers. Now, this is extraordinary : for this twelfth letter was put in manuscript, into 
Mr. Denman's hands, by my friend, actually two or three entire days before any paper pub- 
lished it ! Nay, he had actually refused its admission, and had put the Priests' letter in its 
place, before he knew that other papers icould publish it on the same day. So much for Roman truth ! 
The second reason is this: "It does not come to the point; it is no reply to the Rev 
Priests." And he is pleased to repeat this, in his last Saturday's paper, in these words, — 
'• Unless Dr. B. icill confine himself to the topics under discussion, ue must close this cvntro- 
r-ersy.'" Now, I Avill not gravely offer to refute what the asscrter himself never has believed. 
He and his readers know well that I have stuck ''terribly'' close to the topic under discus- 
sion : and the excoriations of the retreating priests make them feel it. No one, it is true, 
can claim any merit in doing this: one only sees what a plain, and simple exposition of gos- 
pel truth and historical facts can do on the bare nerves of a culprit's guilty conscience ! 
Does any man think so meanly of the intellects of Drs. Power, Levins and Varela, as to im- 
eigine for a moment, that tliey seiiously believe in all that impious nonsense which consti- 
tutes the doctrines and rites of the Romish sect? No, they laugh it to scorn, while they 
teach it. What Cicero spoke of the old Roman Augurs, I apply as a scourge of scorpions 
to these priests. After they return from the exhibition of this buffoonery, trumpery, mira- 
cles, and mummery in the chapel, " they cannot help laughing in each other's faces, as ther 
pull off their motley robes, and charlatan dress!" 

But even admitting that these men did think my letters wide of the point, and that "I never 
confine myself to the topics in discussion," who constituted JViUiam Denman and the 
Priests, the judge, counsel, and jury, to pronounce on me ? I tell these men that I am the 
only and sole judge of what I deem fit to saj^ : and the christian public is the only umpire 
between us. But, after all. if the editor and his holy council of priests deemed my letters 
" so silly, so extravagant, and so wide of the point," do they not see that this teas the very 
reason why they should publish them ? Yes, publish them, and cover the heretic with confusion ! 
It is proper here to state, that the editor of the R. catholic paper, took it upon himself not 
only to withhold my Letter from his readers , but to convert my short introduction, into a 
formal Letter, and even to forge and append my signature, as above, to these introductory 
sentences. And he has, moreover, had the audacity to insert a sentence which I did not 
■write, in order to serve tlie purpose of making me convey the idea that I meant to give my 
Roman catholic readers no other answer whatever, to the last Letter of the priests, than the 
above. 

As it now is, I deem it disreputable to any man of honor, to have any further intercourse 
with him, in the premises. 

I siiall, therefore, offer no more of my letters to his columns, until he publish the two letters 
which he now has on hand : and also make the amende honorable before the christian public 
for these crimes which he has committed against good taste, honor, and sound morals. 

I am respectfully, 
August 5, 1833. " W. C. B. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSr. 159 

LETTER XIII. 

TO DRS. POWER AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 

"Ante Nicaenum concilium sibi quisque vivebat: 
Et ad Romanam Ecclesiam parvus liabebatur respectus." 
iEneas Sylvius, Pope Pius II. Epis. 288. 

Gentlemen :— We noticed in our last Letter, your idle claims to antiquity and 
catholicity. I have now to observe, — 

3d. That succession is another mark claimed by the exclusive Roman catholic 
sect. By this their writers mean to convey the idea, that their sect alone is that church 
to which Christ gave the promise "I am with you:" and the assurance "that the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." They alone, say they, have the direct 
lineal succession from Christ by St. Peter, and the other popes : all the other claim- 
ants in the Greek church, the Syriac, the African, the Old Itahck, the Waldensian, 
and Protestant church, are all, to a man ""damnable heretics, for which there is no sal- 
vation ; it being impossible that God can save any except Roman catholics.'" This is 
the genuine and immutable doctrine of the Roman sect I And your books contain- 
ing this insane doctrine lie open before the American public I 

I will not discuss here, the question of ordination. I simply observe that we advo- 
cate it on gospel principles ; and reject with abhorrence, the superstitious and fanatical 
rite which Romish priests are pleased facetiously to call ordination, and consecration ! 
It has no more authority from Christ the only head of the church, than has any rite 
of Mohammed, or the living idol of Thibet. This we noticed formerly. There must 
be a call of God's providence (Heb. 5. 4.) and a call of a church given to a pastor,- — 
" Come over and help us." The man who wants these, has no right before God, or 
the church, to ordination. He who wants these, " climbs up another way," and has 
the seal of reprobation branded on his forehead, "as a thief and a robber !" Such is 
the appointment and destination of the Roman priest by his bishop : no call, no con- 
sent of " the church," is asked for : they are ipso facto, usurpers, put " into livings," 
by ghostly tyranny, and usurped power. The whole system is a conspiracy against 
Christ's crown and authority, and an outrage on the consciences, and rights of 
freemen. 

In their claims of succession, the Roman sect ludicrously assert that they have an 
unbroken line of descent from "Christ the first pope," through " St. Peter the second 
pope," down to this day. This is ingeniously figured forth, and proved, by a painting 
to be seen in Roman catholic families, and which wa? described to me, the other day, 
by a friend of mine, to whom it was shown in Philadelphia. In this portion of their 
" genuine tradition," strong as proofs of holy writ, Christ is represented as ascending: 
and a stream of his blood is issuing in an arched line from his veins ; and is entering 
into the veins of St. Peter; and through him into the veins of the popes, in regular 
succession. Hence they are the genuine successors " by blood relationshiif.'''' And 
this morsel of tradition, ingeniously committed to paper, is more firmly bclit'ved by 
"the simple faithful," than is any passage in all the New Testament. Such is the 
force of invincible but culi)ablc ignorance. 

Now, to reap any benefit from ''the succession,'^ one wouhi unturally sujiposo tlutt 
the "universal particular church of Rome," should first, prove their succession ; an(i 
then prove their exclusive succession. For ho who cUiiins all the iulicritaiice, and 



I6'0 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

leaves none to any other, must, of course, prove that no one but himself is heir. But 
unfortunately for these exclusive claims of the Roman bigots, the Greek church has 
genuine apostolical descent. The church at Alexandria, in Egypt, had it ; the most 
ancient and famous churcii at Antioch has it, and has its Patriarch sitting in St. Peter's 
chair to this day ; also the church of Africa, once so famous ; and through the genu- 
ine Old Italick church, from which your sect apostatized, the Waldenses had their 
true, apostolical succession. Then hear the words of your own Pope Gregory I. of 
whose writings you and your bishops are so scandalously ignorant. That "saint," 
and pope has declared, and you ought to know it, that " St. Peter's primacy descend- 
ed to three bishopricks, namely, that of Antioch, of Alexandria, and of Rome." See 
his EjtIs. 40. Lib. 7. Tom. ii. p. 887. Paris Edit, of 1705. iVnd, moreover, he pro- 
nounces the title and claims of " Supreme and universal bishop,''^ to be the invention 
of antichrist, who was already in the world." — Even a priest's ignorance cannot deny 
that St. Gregory the pope wrote this. Now, if you believe him, you must renounce 
your exclusive succession : if you do not believe him, then do you pronounce him a 
lying heretic : and therefore " the infallible" " Holy Mother and pope," who canonized 
him, and "the infallible and immutable Holy Mother church," who worships him on 
his saintly day, is no more infallible and immutable ! Choose ye with which horn of 
this dilemma, you shall be pierced, and ecclesiastically slain. 

You are perfectly aware that no satisfactory historical evidence has ever been pro- 
duced by your writers that Peter ever was at Rome. Every intelligent Roman ca- 
tholic is aware that it rests solely on the fictions of interested priests. Several writers 
have, on our side of the question, entered into accurate chronological arguments to 
show that Peter never was there, as a presiding teacher. I beg to refer to Willet's 
Synoysis Papismi, p. 141. There is no evidence in the Bible that Peter was at 
Rome; far less that he was a pope. If he was pope, how utterly inexcusable, un- 
dmiful, and wicked, must St. Paul have been. ; who resided there so long; and never 
had the grace or good manners to salute him, or send his due pontijical salutations, or 
even to mention the name of " the lord your god jjoye Peter /" Nay, if " lord Peter" 
had been pope, he must have been a most unprincipled man. For Paul, when brought 
before Nero, at least two years before Peter's death, says, "At my first answer, no 
man stood by me : but all men forsook me : I pray God that it may not be laid to their 
charge." Now, you must admit, either that " lord Peter," was not pope, and not even 
present in Rome ; or that he was a foul traitor to Christ, and the cause for which 
Paul was nobly suffering. You insist on it that he M'as present; that he was pope. 
Therefore you compel us to believe that you and "the Holy Mother church" are no- 
torious slanderers of 3' our own pope Peter. 

Besides it is singular that your writers should betray such ignorance of your own 
canons. I beg you to look into i>ecref. pars. I. Cap. 2 Anacletus, &c. These canons 
make your ridiculous fictions about Peter's headship, stand out in bold relief. I shall 
quote the canon, — " Ambo Ecclesiam, &c. Both Paul and Peter did consecrate the 
Roman church." Irenasus says the same. Lib. iii. cap. 3. And, as St. Paul was 
"not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles;" and did even administer a severe 
apostolical, and therefore a super-pontifical rebuke to " lord Peter, the pope," — you 
must, to make your succession and exclusive claims good, show the evidence of your 
succession from "lord Paul," the pope, also. Or, as a necessary alternative, you 
must abjure the Bible evidence ; and what is more with you, you must abjure and deny 
your own canons. Or, finally, if you choose for once to be honest men, renounce 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 161 

your absurd succession. " Quid faciam Romse, — mentiri nescio," — "What can I do 
at Rome, I cannot fabricate lies," said a true prophet. 

But, gentlemen, even admitting that the apostles had successors as apostles, which, 
we have already proved, they had not ; and even admitting it possible that you can 
get over the infinity of historical and chronological difficulties, which every body sees 
lying in your way, — your succession has failed, and is lost in inextricable ruin! 
This I took the liberty of proving in my Letter IV. and you made no reply: you 
durst not touch the subject: your silence was ample evidence that you cannot disen- 
tangle the question of succession from its labyrinth of confusion, and contradictions. 
There is not one sensible man among you that, for one moment, believes it. I should 
insult your intellectual powers did I even insinuate that you, gentlemen priests, do 
yourselves believe this " fundamental tenet." And as for "the simple faithful priests" 
who know no better, and "the simple faithful laymen," who believe infinitely more 
than they know any thing about, — why, they believe in the succession and the de 
scent of the " holy prastes,'^ just as strongly, and on just as good evidence, as do the 
intelligent pagaus of the East, that " the world is a large flat body, resting on the back 
of a huge land turtle!" 

I shall only add here that your line of succession from the apostolic church is bro- 
ken off, by the total and utter loss of the bond of holiness. You are " The man of 
»in," trafficking "in sin," and in "the souls of men," as I shall show, when I come 
to indulgences, and the pope's chancery book containing the registered price of every 
sin, and the fixed price of men's souls! The succession of doctrine also is utterly 
and incurably destroyed. This I showed in Letter VIII. You have renounced every 
grand peculiar doctrine of the gospel : even your recognition of the Trinity, is merely 
nominal : the main object of your worship is " The Queen of heaven," she who 
"commands her son," — namelythe Virgin Mary, she is in your spiritual heaven, and 
in your temples, what Fewws was in the East, and Jupiter w^s among the Greeks and 
Romans! You have practically lost the most holy doctrine of Trinity, utterly in 
your thirty thousand gods and goddesses, usually named saints, and saintesses ! And 
this being the case with the object of divine worship, it is easy to see that not even one 
essential doctrine of the gospel has kept its place in your system. All these have been 
quenched in your heavens i All is dreariness and darkness : your skies are covered 
with a veil of blackness: no one solitary star sparkles there ! Now this being the 
case, hear the words in St. Clement's Epist. I. which you admit to be genuine ; St. 
Peter there declares that " the true succession is in the succession of doctrine." Also 
your Pope Felix says — " Qui participes, &c. those who would share the apostleship, 
must follow the apostles' doctrine." So also in your Decret. P. I. dist. 40. cap. I. 
" Petrus, &c. Peter left the inheritance of innocence to his heirs." And let me add 
a valuable extract from Gregory Nazianzen: — "To fuvyap&LC. He that holdcth the 
same doctrine is of the same chair ; but he who is an enemy to the doctrine, is an 
onemy to the chair." Orat. 21. In Laud. Athanasii: Paris Edit. 1778. Therefore 
your succession is broken ofT utterly, and forever! 

This is not all. We sliall pay our respect to some of the prominent popes, through 
whom you claim your "holy and unbroken line of succession." A simple detail fron:^ 
history will show what kind of a thing this "holy and unbroken line of Roman suc- 
cession" is. 

The popedom of Peter, and that of /onn, the female pope, rest on ctpial evidence. 
Peter's papacy was not mentioned for several centuries after his death : Joan's was 

15* 



16*2 SDMAX CATHOLIC COTHOTEaST. 

not registered (6i two hundred years alter her decease. Bat even supposing the fictit>a 
true, that he was pope in good earnest, the Roman writers, and even the ancient 
fathers cannot agree who were the immediate successors of lord Peter, the fisherman ! 
Seven of the fathers with Augustine, make Linus the second bishop of Rome. Tertul- 
Uan and the Latins make Clemens the seccmd. Cossart, Ld his great work, the Con- 
cilia^ cannot determine ftt)m any existing evidence, which of these was the succesaur 
of lord Peter. He nranklv admits ''the uncenainty of the pontifical succession."" 
Latterly the supposition inclines to favor Linus. But, it so happens thai '• the Apo*- 
t jlical constitutions" bear witness that Linus, your second pope, was ordained not by 
pope Peter, bat by Paul. This fairly upsets the succession from lord Peter, by Linus. 
See Ap. Con. Lib. vii. 46, and Labbeus, Lib. L 63. 

A^ain, Baronius, Bellarmiae and others make Cletns, and Anacletns two different 
pDpes : Cotelerius, Fleury, and others make them the same man : Bruys and Cossait 
declare that it is perfectly uncertain whether they were, or were not the same man ! 
Twenty other Roman writers have entered the lists to senle this interminable point ! 
See Cotelerius, Tom. i. p. 387. Binii Concilia Tom. i. p. 30, &;c., &;c. ; Edgar's Va- 
riations of Popery, p. 75, Dublin Edition. 

The learned and solemn triflings of Rormsh writers fully establish this point, — 
namely, that there was not a soul of them that knew any thing about the papal suc- 
cesision! And the sum of the whole is this, — it is a truth abont as certain, and as 
valuable, as that of the true successor of Robin Hood, or Jack, the giant killer I Thus 
gentlemen, to avail myself of a truly expressive Lishism, — the pontifical sncces^ion 
was fairly cut off, before it began ! 

But passing tins, — and supposing the impossible thin g to have happened, the grand 
schisms have utterly cut off your succession. Dr. Geddes in his valuable work, in 
tour volumes on the papacy, enumerates tictnty-fouT schisms ; your Baronius twtnty- 
six : Onuphrius the mt^t accurate of writers, makes thirty . this, said Edgar, in his 
Variations of popery, is the conmionly received estimation. The detailed account I 
have before me by Geddes and Edgar : and could I find rcK»n ^r it, I shoidd exhibit 
a history of wars, bloodshed, perjury, treason, blasphemy, and the most horrid 
impieties, reigning triumphant in the very throne of the pope, and in all his dominions ; 
and unparalleled in all history I A few specimens I shall glean from the principal 
writers. 

The second schism was between popes Libeiios and Felix in the fourth centmy. 
Felix was chosen by the Arian faction to oppt^e Liberius, who was thence bani^ed- 
B ut ua^-ing signed the Arian creed, he was recalled : then conmienced the bloody 
wars between these two Arian popes. '• The wars ra^ed Iodj. the clerer were mur- 
dered, by the opposing factions, in the very churches." 

St. Augustine, and Jerome, followed by the modems Fienry, and 3Iorery, Tom- 
iv. p. 42, unite in pronouncmg pope FeUx an Arian heretic ! St. Aihanasius, Ad 
So/., calls him a monster raised to the Roman hierarchy, by the mahce of Anu-christ ! 
See Labbeus, Tom. ii. p. 991. — ^Bruys, Hist. Des papes, Tom. i. p. 123, Edgar's 
Var. p. 76. 

And will the American public believe me, when I declare to them that these two 
bloody monsters and Aricm heretics, were after all their minrders, perjury, and heresy, 
s<)lemnly enrolled in the ghostly list of Roman saints ! St. Felix ! St. Liberius ! TJiese 
are their titles. And here are the words which our priests address to them in prayer, 
on their festival days, — even to these murderers, and deniers of our Lord's deity. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 163 

^'■Oh! St. Liberius, the light of the holy church, lover of the divine law, whom God 
loved, and clothed with the love of glory, — procure for us by thy interceding merits, the 
pardon of all our sins P' See Rom. Breviary, p. 35. And Rom. Missal, p. 14. The 
same worship is to this very day, offered up to the bloody and atrocious Felix asc 
saint, a pope, a martyr! And to this kind of gods, do Drs. Power, Levins, and 
Varela, offer up this kind of prayers ! If they neglect to do it, they know that they 
are perjured men. For they have taken the great oath to do it, and to do it regularly, 
<m pain of damnation in their soul, and their body ! 

The fourth schism was between popes Eulalius and Boniface in the fifth century. 
After m-any shameful scenes, the emperor decided the matter, and by imperial and 
military powers, commanded Boniface to be pope! It is evident that at this time, the 
Roman emperor dictated the election. Our priests, and "Holy Mother," must there- 
fore admit that Peter's spiritual lordship had, at this early period, yielded to the tem- 
poral power of the emperor Honorius, and his successors. 

The seventh schism was originated by popes Silverius and Vigilius, in the sixth 
century. The first was elected by simony and fraud; and he was ordained by foroe 
and violence. He was created pope by the king of the Goths. Vigilius his rival 
was elected by another faction, by simony and fraud, equal in atrocity, to that of his 
antagonist. He received 700 pieces of gold, and the popedom from the empress 
Theodora, on condition of his aiding her purposes. This he accepted ; and was 
raised to the papacy. This "holy and infallible pope," in order to get rid ofhig 
rivals, suborned false witnesses to swear that Silverius was plotting to betray Rome 
to the Goths. He paid two hundred pieces of gold for his testimony of the perjurer. 
It succeeded ; the rival was banished, and shortly after this, he was starved to death ; 
others say, assassinated. See Godeau, iv. 104. Platina, 68. Now, it is obvious 
that, according to your own canons, both of these popes were illegally chosen. Here 
the links of the chain were again broken. Besides the character of Vigilius who 
professed to transmit the succession, was atrociously wicked. Covetousness, and 
the impious mockery of the laws of God and man, were among his least sins. He 
murdered his secretary by the blow of a club: he scourged his nephew to death; and 
was accessary to the murder of the pope, his rival. See Platina, 68. 

The thirteenth schism took place in the close of the ninth century : it disgraced the 
papacy of Formosus, and Sergius. The first was elected contrary to the bulls of 
popes Nicholas, and Julius. But he was sustained by the power of the king of the 
Goths. Sergius, his rival, was finally expelled, and died an exile. Formosus did 
not long enjoy his guilty power and honors. Six years after his election, he died. 
The atrocious pope Stephen was his successor* This "Vicar of God" ordered his 
predecessor, Formosus, also a " Vicar of God," to be dug out of his grave. He bad 
him dressed in his pontificals : and gravely brought into court, to be tried. Tht> 
question was put to him, " How dared you, being bishop of Porto, to allow yourself to 
be raised to the Holy See?" The dead body not making any reply, as might natu- 
rally be expected, his silence was deemed guilt; he was solemnly condemned, his 
popedom declared illegal and invalid : his head and three of his fingers were cut ofl ; 
and his mangled body cast into the Tyber. The scenes which followed this, were 
outrageous and horrible. The "holy and infallible father" Stoi)lien died in a dun- 
geon by the rope ! Bruys pronounces his eulogium, — "This father and teacher of 
all christians," says the popish writer, — "was as ignorant as he was wicked." "He 
was guilty of a wicked and unheard of sacrilege," says Barouius. Pope John X., iu 



164 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

his turn helped to cut off your succession by condemning pope Stephen and re-edta- 
blishing the interests of pope Fonnosus. But all things are mutable in "immutable 
jmd infallible Rome." Pope Sergius III. pronounced his ban on the decrees of pope 
John X., reverses his acts: restores the ordination of pope Stephen, and condemns 
the ordinations of pope Formosus. See Platina, p. 127. Now, it is utterly idle for 
any man to attempt to trace the genuine succession through all these confusions 
and tumults, and wickedness. If these men were christian pastors and " the pure 
successors'' of Peter, then what holy and exalted saints must Nero and Tamerlane 
have been! 

Baronius, I am aware, ventures to make a somewhat different inference from thig. 
After a suitable degree of raiUng at the Protestants, as he always does when he is con- 
strained to narrate some of the infamous acts of the popes, by way of a Jesuit's offset, 
and ruse de guerre, he very gravely pronounces this succession of abominable popes 
*'a clear demonstration that the supreme authority of the Roman see can never 
possibly be destroyed. For, if it could," says he, " such a long succession of monsters 
in vice and folly must infallibly have ruined it." What an admirable argument 
tliis would have been in the lips of the Roman pagan emperors, who, j'-ou know, 
were also the supreme jpontiffs of the pagan superstition. "Verily," they might have 
said, " we have here the evidence of the truth of our holy pagan idolatry, and a demon- 
stration that our pontifical authorit}'^ can never possibly be destroyed. For if the 
pagan religion were false, and if my pontifical authority could be destroyed, — surely 
such a long succession of atrocious despots, must, by their vice and folly, long ago 
have ruined it!" The fact is this, in each of these cases, the boasters had nothing to 
lose ! The divinity of Roman catholic despotism and of pagan despotism ; being 
e-qually doubtful of proof; and equally from Peter and from heaven ! 

The nbitteenth schism happened in the beginning of the eleventh centur3^ It re- 
vealed scenes more shocking than any thing hitherto conceived. As Rome catholic 
advanced in age, she increased, by a double compound ratio, in all possible wicked- 
ness. There were three popes in this schism. Benedict was elected in A. D. 1033. 
He was placed in the "holy chair," by simony, the universal and every day sin of 
Rome ; and by faction, and t3^ranny. His life was a compound of all the pollution of 
the Roman pagans compressed into one little soul and body. This was "the holy 
father of Rome," the only "judge of all controversy," "the fountain of indulgences 
and pardon of sin" for money ! Silvester was put up as a rival to this monster; and 
he expelled Benedict. John was the third pope, at this time. Benedict, v/ithout 
resigning, sold the papacy to John for £1500 : and was quiet as long as this money 
ministered to his diabolical lusts and wickedness. Silvester who had been driven 
away by one faction, again returned and seized the Vatican. Benedict having spent 
his money, also renewed his claims to that office which he had sold for gold. These 
three ruffian popes, by violence and bloodshed, kept possession of the Lateran, the 
Vatican, and St. Mary's. " A three-headed beast," said your two writers, Labbeus 
and Binius, " rising from the gates of hell, infested the holy chair in a woful manner." 
Labb. vol. xi. p. 1280. Bin. vol. vii. p. 221. And Baronius, your orthodox Roman 
historian also calls them "the three headed beast which had issued from the gates of 
heil!" Tom. xi. Annal. A. D. 1044. — You have Cerberus, then, in the "pure and 
holy line" of your succession ! ! 

And how was a remedy brought to this state of things? Your Baronius has faith- 
fully told the tale in Tom. xi. Annal of A. D. 1044. " As the mouths of the real Cer- 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVfiRST. 165 

herus, with its three heads, were stopped only by * a pitchy mouthful,' says he, so a 
certain * pious man' of the name of Gratian, bethought of a similar scheme." The 
three mouths of th- iDonster pope could be stopped, he was sure, with money. For 
money you know, gei; lemen, is the only omnipotent god of your " Holy Mother" and 
her priests ! This man, Gratian, actually bought the pope's chair, with all the spirit- 
ual powers, and honors, and apurtenances, thereto belonging, be they less or more. 
He bought it, with all its natnes, titles, and attributes, of antiquity, catholicity, succes- 
sion, unity, miraculoiity, and sanctity. The three popes formally made over " Holy 
Mother Church" for gold!.] .Benedict, one of the holy fathers, for instance, was to 
have all the revenues arising from England, while he lived ; and the other holy pair 
had their just share ! . Arid the purchaser, by the merits of his gold, was duly made 
Pope, "Vice-God," sjid the "Holy father" of the faithful, to open heaven and shut 
it on whom he pleased. This new and fourth existing pope assumed the name of 
Gregory VI. I have only to add that your writers, Platina and Damian tell us with 
much gravity that Benedict, this wicked pope, who caused this schism, and bloodshed, 
and misery was subjected to punishment after death. Yes, the father of the faithful 
and "God's vice-regent" was doomed to punishment! He appeared, say they, to a 
traveller, with the graceful countenance of "a bear," and a head decorated with the 
"long ears of an ass!" he was ornamented also with the long tail of an ass! The 
traveller had the courage to ask him,— having found out that it was his " Holiness," 
what could possibly be the cause of such a wicked and unholy transformation? 
"Ah!" said the decea,sed Holy Father, — "this is the due reward of my pollution 
when I was the head of the Holy Mother !" This pontiff, adds one of your saints, i^i 
doomed to be dragged headlong, until the day of judgment, through thorns and filth, 
in. regions continually exhaling sulphur and stench, and burning with fire. See Da- 
mian, c. 3. Platina, 142. Spondani, Epit. Baronh VI. 1094. Edgar 82. 

I shall notice only one instance more : the twenty-ninth schism, usually called the 
great Western schism, began in 1378. On the death of Gregory XI. the conclave, con- 
sisting of twelve French cardinals, and four Italians proceeded to choose a pope. The 
citizens of Rome had recently received back the pope and court, after 70 years ab- 
sence, at Avignon. They very naturally supposed, that unless an overpowering mul- 
titude should give them some salutary hints, backed by some well-timed cluh-logic^ to 
regulate their heterodoxy, they might be wicked enough to choose a Frenchman^ for a 
Pope : and he, of course, they had reason to fear, would retire to Avignon, there to 
spend his riches. Guided by such disinterested motives, they placed d. guard of honor 
around the holy conclave, and proceeded to give them the necessary hints by 30,000 
armed men ; — namely, that if the holy fathers did venture to choose a Frenchman 
for Pope, it must be for no other reason than their own anxiety to get to heaven before 
their time, as martyrs!! The cardinals arc remarkably prudent men; they never 
had given a martyr to " Holy Mother" yet; and the}'- did not choose, at this time, to 
begin the precedent : their lives were exceedingly valuable ; good men were then 
scarce. They took the hint from the mob : and adopted measures to get ample ven- 
geance on both friends, and foes, and "Holy Mother" too! 

They formally chose Urban VI. And then retiring beyond the reach of the Roman 
mob's discipline, they as fornuilly elected Clement VII. II(;ro your conclave chose 
two opposing heads of " Holy Mother." Clement set up his court at Avignon : 
Urban, at Rome. And from that day all Europe was convulsed with wars. 

This great schism lasted about 50 years. All Europe was a great ecclesiastical 



166 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTRGVERST. 

arena, on which kings and popes who are the worst of men, entered the Hsts With 
deadly animosity, against popes and kings. What Httle remains there was of religioil 
in Europe, was nearly extinguished. The ghostly factions acted, usually, without 
policy, and always without christian principle. " The pope's conscience," says Ed- 
gar, " evaporated in ambition, selfishness, and characteristic malignity." The cam- 
paign was opened by a volley of spiritual artillery. The electors denounced pope 
Urban, and he excommunicated every soul of them, and formally gave the holy car- 
dinals all over to the devil, soul and body ! ! Clement paid Urban back in full tak. 
It was a fair trial which pope could curse his antagonist with loudest thunder and 
deepest anathemas ! Kings and Queens shared in the horrid curses ! No bishop, or 
priest escaped. They cursed all on each side, mutually : and each pope declared 
that "What he bound on earth was bound in heaven." Hence each believed, and 
declared that his antagonist, and all his adhering bishops and priests, were cursed and 
excommunicated; and thence strij)ped of office, and sanctity! And in as much as 
each of them was duly elected pope, and each of them was a gentleman of equal honor 
and equal credit, we are bound in duty, to believe each of them to have been cor- 
rect ! And as each of these duly elected popes had annulled and vacated all the ordi- 
nations, collations, and promotions of his rival, of course there was not one bishop, or 
one priest in all Europe, who was not duly deposed, and duly excommunicated from 
the church, and stripped of his office. They annihilated the hierarchy of Rome ; 
and it was regularly and duly done! And I respectfully challenge all the Roman 
priests in our Republic, to show any thing even plausible, against this historical fact. 

As if to make things doubly sure, in this formal deposition, the council of Pisa 
deposed and set aside these tivo popes; and elected pope Alexander. This, instead 
of healing, made three acting popes ! And all Europe sustained a fresh convulsion 
by the three fierce ecclesiastical factions. 

The council Of Constance, of atrocious memory, met in A. D. 1414. By this time 
jxrpe John had succeeded pope Alexander. The council required the three popes to 
resign forthwith : each on oath solemnly 3'ielded ; and swore on the holy evangelists, 
to obey. But each of them instantly resumed his papacy : and thus, says an able 
writer, " Holy Mother had three perjured heads ; and there were three perjured Vice- 
gods /" John was deposed for his infamous crimes : the council actually proving 
and declaring " the holy father" guilt}'' of " perjury, incest, rape, murder, and sodomy," 
See Labbeus vol. xvi. p. 178, 222, and Dupin vol. iii. 14. — Gregory the next pope, ab- 
dicated and renounced the papacy : the third one, Benedict, stood out: he retired into 
a strong castle, and there, deserted by all his friends, he consoled himself in his dotage, 
by excommunicating twice in the day, with hell, book, and candle, all the nations of 
Europe who had deserted his holy " personal cause !" Pope Martin was raised to the 
papacy. And the infamous council made itself an execration to all generations, by 
tlieir treachery and infernal cruelty. They condemned, and burned alive, the famous 
martyrs fiuss, and Jerome of Prague, against whom they could bring no charge, but 
tiiat of being devoted christians, and faithful opposers of the heresy of the Romish 
sect. 

We might go on to adduce a list of upwards of 200 popes of a character, in all 
jx)ints, similar to these. But this we deem enough, both to give the public an idea of 
the line of succession boasted of by the Roman catholic sect : and, at the same time, 
to annihilate their ridiculous claims of descent from the apostles ! I shall only add 
that, were I asked to select a list of the worst men ; and the most wicked rulers : 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 167 

even the most unprincipled of the species, — such as atheists, despots, mockers of 
virtue and rehgion ; the common enemies of God and man ; I would pass by the 
Kings of Egypt, and Syria, and the despots of Assyria, and Babylon; I would leave 
out the atrocious Alexanders ; and the Caesars ; and the Greek despots ; and the Ro- 
man emperors : I would even omit the News, and the Tamerlanes : — and I would, 
after making an honorable selection of a few worthy names, — give "the Popes or 
Rome," as furnishing that horrid list ! Their enormities, perpetrated under the mask 
of holy religion, exceed, in fact, the powers of description. The characters of these 
men, as hinted at in St. John's Revelations, " as drunk with the blood of the saints," 
^-end as exhibited in the history of their lives, can no more be adequately portrayed 
than can the character of the prince of darkness! What man — what church, that 
respects the character, and claims the honor of being Christian, would ever claim 
sjnriiual, or ecclesiastical succession through such a line of inhuman, and despotic 
tyrants ! Men ! such as the arch-deceiver would select as his prime ministers ! Men ! 
who have been the head, the heart, and the ever ready hand of that bloody Romish 
sect^ which has already murdered sixty-eight millions of the human family : and 
is now seeking with an insatiable ghostly ambition, to regain its power, and would, 
if possible, murder as many more ! ! 

I am, gentlemen, yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



In The Truth Teller, under the date of August 8, the folloioing Letter appeared as 
the finale of the Priests. 

TO DR. BROWNLEE, 

A PREACHER IN THE MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH, 

This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Luc. 14. 30. 

Rev. Sir: — Our controversy with you, personally, is terminated. It would be folly to 
continue it with a preacher who can neither form nor appreciate argument. Public 
opinion must be respected, — our own character must not be dishonored. To continue 
polemic discussion with you cannot add to i-eputation, for your substitute for argument are 
falsehood, ribald words, gross invective, disgusting calumny, and the recommendation of an 
obscene tale I These have been your weapons from your first to your last puerile letter. 

"In the 'Truth Teller' of July 6th and 13th, the following proposition was proposed to 
you : ' What articles of faith, found in the scriptures in express terms, must be believed in 
order to be saved?' You were, at the same time, informed that 'the continuation of our 
c<!*ntrovcrsy with you, personally, would depend on your answer.' After a cautious delay 
your answer was concocted, — your articles of faith found in the scripture in express terms, 
were given. Our last letter contained ova* remarks on your Bihle creed. By this creed yo" 
exclude the trinity, and the incarnation. What is your answer to our letter? this: 'Your 
idtra zealotry' is ' ambitioning' too much when you find fault with my scriptural creeil, — or, 
indeed, any christian creed ! This is your theological answer ! this is the answer of the 
erudite in the ' Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost !' This is the answer of the prcacl>er 
in die Middle Dutch Church ! He says we 'ambition too much when we find fault with 
fus scriptural creed.' But his scriptural creed excludes tlic trinity and incarnation, and to 
find fault with the exclusion of the trinity and incarnation is, from his own avowal, ' ambition- 
ing too much!' Hence, to secure the favor and approval of preacher Brownlee, we must 
0(>t ' find fault' with the scriptural creed which excludes the trinity and incarnation. We 



168 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

ask his ' christian public,' is not this an ample and practical illustration of his protestant rule 
of faith." 

'* But, further he writes; ' Fou 'ambition' too much when you find fault with any christ- 
ian creed !" Therefore, in the opinion of preacher Brownlee, no christian creed is to be con- 
demned. This is liberality ! But why does the preacher ' find fault' with the catholic ? 
Is tliis consistency ? Any christian creed may be adopted : this is the final, logical, and ortho- 
dox conclusion from the twelve polemical letters of preacher Brownlee on his protestant rule 
of faith. This is the triumph achieved by preacher Brownlee for himself, the members of 
the Middle Dutch Church, and his ' virtuous ladies.' As the bard sung of the burial of Sir 
John Moore, 

'* 'We leave him alone with his glory.' " 

John Power, 
August 8th, 1833. Thos. C. Levins. 



LETTER XIV.— AND LAST. 

TO DOCTORS POWER, AND VARELA, AND MR. LEVINS. 

" Therefore I will put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn 
THEE BACK by the way, by which thou earnest." — Isai. xxxvii. 29. 

Gentlemen : — Indulge me in a few words on parting, seeing that nothing can stop 
your RETREAT from the defence of "Holy Mother." And I trust, I shall not be 
deemed greatly guilty, should I adopt a more playful humor, or, the philipic of the 
great master of eloquence. The former is useful to relieve all parties, in the midst of 
a rigid argument, and the sombre task of searching the pages of the fathers, and the 
dull lumbering volumes of the Romish writers. The use of the latter is as necessary 
and legitimate, in rousing our slumbering fellow citizens to a sense of their imminent 
danger ; and in scourging the conspirators against our republican institutions, our Pro- 
testant religion, and our civil and religious liberties. — as ever it was in the hands of 
the great master, against the enemies of Greece. 

You inform the public, gentlemen, that *'your controversy with me, personally is 
at an end." I pray you, gentlemen, to beware of rash words. Controversy with me, 
personally, you do not mean to end. It is true, this theological, and historical discus- 
sion has not, I trust, been personal on my part. Personal sins, and flagrant delin- 
quency I have rebuked : but that is no " personality," which is levelled against crime. 
No, I chose a higher aim. No priest can, in a general discussion, be an object of 
personal attack; when such game is started, and in full view, as ''Holy Mother,'' and 
priestcrajl .' It is the head of all evil, on earth, namely error and vice personified, 
and completely embodied in Roman Antichrist, at which the honest Protestant aims 
the arrows of his quiver ; — and his " Jerusalem blade," when he comes to close 
quarters! But for you, gentlemen, — you have labored in your vocation of endlese 
personalities. Jesuitism is by nature and training, given to personalities ! Jesuitism 
would die of spleen, outright, if it did not vent its personalities. You have given the 
most perfect specimens in this discussion. You have, moreover, established the fact 
to the satisfaction of your enemies, that Romish logic has never yet distinguished 
between argument and personal abuse. I do not say that this is your personal in- 
firmity. No. It is of the essential nature of the whole system. Jesuitism is by itt 
very nature, at war with all mankind, and the good of all civilized society ! Issuing, 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 169 

as it did, from the bottomless pit, -if its natural malignity and hatred of all that is 
good were changed, or modified, it would of necessity die. ''Nojaith ivith heretics,'" 
is the watchword of its bloodhoimds. The clanking of chains, and the moans of the 
tortured victims in the Inquisition, have beea its favorite music : and the fires of the 
AUTO DA FE, light up its dreary and horrid pathway ! The bowels of Jesuitism 
yearn over us, according to its natural parental feelings ! Wherever it had the as- 
dency it lighted up the gleaming fires of persecution. When its slave. Queen Mary, 
mounted the throne of England, the fires of Smithfield were lighted up. We cast 
our eyes over the massacres of Paris, and of Ireland, and in Piedmont ! We shudder 
at the Autodafes of Spain! And "you may expel nature with a fork," as the Ro- 
man poet said ; but nature will return in its unsubdued prurience, — and to-morrow 
would Romanism light up the Smithjield Jives, in our Park, had this bloody sect the 
political ascendency and power, in our land! 

How could you, then. Rev. Sirs, be so utterly off your guard as to commit your- 
selves, by giving a pledge you never will redeem ! — But so it is : — as your own favor- 
ite hath it : — 

*' A man may smile, and smile, and be a villain." 

You have again repeated your blundering and ungrammatical card, demanding, — 
*' What articles of faith found in the scriptures, in express terms, must be believed in 
order to be saved ?" That is, what articles are to be believed to be saved? You 
have in all your letters, given the American public sufficient specimens, in all con- 
science, of the deficiencies of a Romish theological education : you might have spared 
the public taste this last infliction ! But this little Card is the youngest and last of the 
family : and of course it is a pet with 3"ou ! It is natural ! In a family, the 3'oungest, 
little, rickety child is always the object of an absorbing parental fondness, — especially 
when its parents are waxing old, and are feeble-minded ! 

You have given us another specimen of Romish logic in your remarks touching 
my scripture creed. You facetiously affect to infer that we reject certain doctrines 
because we do not mention them in express words. On your principles a man does not. 
believe what he does not find room to express in certain phrases ! Hence, on the })rin- 
ciples of your profound logic, our Lord, who does not, in express terms, mention either 
the Trinity, or the incarnation, in the Lord's prayer, did not himself believe in them ! 
This, however, is not my main reply. Had your education embraced in it, the first 
elements of a sound christian theologjs and the analytic method of evolving truth — 
you must have seen, that in the very first text which I quoted, namely, " Believe in 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," — the true christian necessarily be- 
lieves in the Father, who sent his Son to redeem us : and in Jesus Christ the incarnate- 
God, who in human nature, suffered, and died for us : and in the Holy Ghost, who 
" creates us anew in Christ," and gives us that very faith by which we receive Christ. 
However, I have availed myself of your suggestion: — Nam fas est et ah hoste doceri/ 
I have, to satisfy you, added a few more texts to my "scripture creed," in tlic second 
edition of my Letters ; which you will admit to he now correct. 

I shall not, therefore, follow you any farther, in your disjointed, and bald declama- 
tion about " Creeds of christian faith" and "articles of belief." "Physician, I say, 
heal thyself!" Those men, who have been fairly convicted of deism, on evidence 
whicli would satisfy any jury of twelve honest men; and who in fact, have openly 
declared in the face of the public, that tliey, and their sect do absolutely reject 

IG 



170 AOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

God's word, as ^^ utterly defective,'' and utterly insufficient to he the rule of faith,^*-^ 
are not to be listened to, in discussions about christian creeds, and articles of faith. 
Is it not sheer hypocrisy ? *' And of all the earnings of this canting world, the cant 
of hypocrisy is the worst." And of all the hypocrites, the most insufferable are these 
tico classes ; — namely, — the solemn drunkard, on the alehouse bench ; and the infidel 
jniest demurely discusssing creeds, and the pure doctrines of our holy religion ! 

The highly complimentary truth which closes your last letter, would have been 
duly appreciated by me, had it not been wrung from you by constraint. Here the 
priests of Rome have been, in one respect, like the fair sex ; — pardon me, ladies, foi* 
])lacing you, even in supposition, in the company of the priesthood of Rome, with 
whom, we are all aware, no virtuous lady can associate for one moment. But in th^ 
fair one's letter, one can never arrive at her real feelings and meaning, until he comef 
to the postscript. There, every thing is wrapt up in the last sentence. Even so, 
after all the priests' vituperation, and scandal, and personalities, the truth is evolved 
in their last sentence, — namely, — "We leave him alone," that is their opponent— 
"in his glory!" There are, I assure you, few polemics who can boast of receiving 
such a compliment as this from their antagonists ! 

It means, — "We abandon to him the whole cause, in despair! '■'■We leave him. 
alone in his glory ! Our Roman catholic rule is utterly untenable ! We abandon 
the defence! The heretic's ten arguments have fairly capsized us! They have 
crushed our rule ! And the one score and five arguments against Holy 31other'8 
"idolatry," and her "superstition," and her "fanaticism," as he calls them, have 
annihilated our hopes. They are tremendous! Conscious innocence can withstam 
any thing I But a guilty conscience makes one feel one's self annihilated ! Hob 
Mothers "antiquity," v;ho can defend, when we have a conviction in our consciences 
that all our leading tenets and rites were, in sober truth, recently invented by ou 
popes and the priesthood. Then these treacherous fathers, — and that fatal want o 
the unanimous consent ! These monks of the dark age have much to answer for 
^Vhen they did alter, erase and add, why did they not do their job thoroughly, lik« 
lionest sons of "Holy Mother?" They have done their work in an imperfect anc 
slovenly manner. They have left, on their old pages, enough yet to paralyze us ! 
And to crown the mischief, these books of our fathers, have got into the hands of the 
heretics. And, only think, our heretic in his terrible Letter VIII., has let the fatal 
secret out from these — our own hooks! Our plea of "catholicity" is gone, — unless 
we oppose stout denials to our own standard writers ! The plague rest — as our 
Shakespear says, on this cunning, reading, thinking '■^American public,'' — and this 
'■'relv^ious puhlic" of his ! What a serious mistake we have fallen into! We have 
learned, — but it is too late, that we are not in Spain, and the blessed South of Ireland ! 
We had hoped to make this "American public" believe that particular was general; 
that Rome and our church, were the universal world! Our succession is ridiculed 
too! Those schisms, and those diabolical popes, set forth in all their horrid garnish- 
ment, will kill us outright ! That Baronius, that Labbeus, and Binius, and Bruys, 
and Du Cange, and Dupin, and the rest of our slovenly, truth betraying writers, can 
never escape purgatory, for their wanton crime of affording materials to the heretics I f 
Why did our own sons Uft the veil off " Holy Mother I" 

Alas ! for the stately bark of St. Peter ! It has been shipwrecked in Europe. And 
our last hopes were in bringing these United States under our grasp, and the holy des- 
potism, — the salutary despotism of Rome, and the Inquisition ! We were working 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 171 

our way secretly and slyly. We had got many Protestants, — " silly fools," we admit, 
who actually sent their daughters into our nunneries, and their sons to our pure and 
holy seminaries of Jesuitism, to be educated! ! And carefully and successfully did 
we train them : and return them into the bosom of their heretical parents ; deeply 
imbued with pure monarchy and Romanism ; and faithful to the catholic Jesuits' cause ! ! 
But alas ! the cunning " American public" is now waked up ! And our hopes are 
blasted ! The curse of St. Patrick, as Shakespear says, be on these discussions ! It 
is true, we knew the wholesome rule of our Jesuit Busseus: "Avoid, if you can, all 
controversy on the articles of faith, with heretics!" We did act on this all along! 
But these obstinate heretics would not be way-laid. They plunged right onward ; 
and they got in spite of us, into our citadel, — into the very chambers of our imagery ! 
The veil so carefully thrown over all our weak and deformed parts, has been most 
unceremoniously stript off. And St. Patrick, as Shakespear says, only knows what 
is to be the end of these things! Our blessings on this officious, meddling "Ameri- 
can public" of his ! We had once thought that we could easily train, bj- our Jesuit 
legions swarming over the land, the people of this same American republic ! Our 
doctrines, our rites, and church government, sustained by a foreign power, cannot 
thrive, — they cannot even live in a Republic ! But when we shall receive the power, 
we shall teach these stiff headed Republicans another lesson. Spain, Austria and 
Italy shall be the fair model of a new and renovated government ! But the maledic- 
tions of St. Peter and St. Paul, as our Shakespear says, be on those ill advised dis- 
cussions! Our secret plans, from our head quarters in Europe, have been suddenly 
divulged, before they had ripened into perfection! Our benisous on this "reading 
and thinking" generation! Ten thousand anathemas on this "light and knowledge," 
as the heretics call it. They paralyze us ; they strike us blind, as do the sun beams 
the owl of the forest !" 

Such, gentlemen, are the frank admissions conveyed in the last sentence, and part- 
ing scrap of poetry, of your last letter. We thank you for the concessions : we shall 
give wings to them ! 

But, finally, permit me to grace your retreat with an appropriate historical expo- 
sition of your favorite text at the head of my letter. It Avas not foi nothing that you 
quoted it so often, and so apropos. " Coming events cast their shadows before !" You 
had a presentiment of this ill fated retreat : and it was impossible that you could 
forget the retreat of the great personages, alluded to, in the premonitory passage of 
the prophet. 

These were Senacherib, the despot of Assyria : with his two mischief-making sons, 
Adramelech and Sharezer; who closed the chapter of their father's accidents, in a 
bloody tragedy. These, with their servant, Rabshakeh, came up to invade the fair 
land of Judah, and destroy Mount Zion. The king of Assyria was but another name 
for a cruel foreign des])otism, exercised over the souls and bodies of men. You know 
who is the antitype of this unenviable character. TJie two sons of that prince, children 
of Belial, may represent the two men who are the right and left hands of the symbol 
of foreign despotism, — men, who, like these sons, would kill their sovereign ! And 
Rabshakeh was a vain, blustering, swaggering, wine-bibber ; much given to gascon- 
ade ; a captain of the Assyrian host; fighting against Zion, and against the Most 
High; much given to s|)eak and write blasphemy in the ears, and before the eyes, of 
the people : inuch given to taunt "the Hebrew of the Holy Ghost," and prefer the 
Babylonian traditions, and oracles of the heathens, to the pure and holy word of God. 



!/«; ROSIAX CATHOLIC COXTROVERSt. 

Moreover, for some misdemeanor or other, by the law of his despotic prince, he waf^ 
doomed never to marrj', nor to be received into the company of "virtuous ladies."' 
Hence he exercised himself much in the language of Ashdod, in speaking evil of all 
" the virtuous of the sex." For he did, — 

"Like Moses praise and bless, 
The Canaan uhich he never could possess." 

But haste we to the sequel — Never was defeat more public and more complete, 
than that of owr Assyrians! Never was a Retreat of any vain glorious foemeii 
covered with more infamy than was that of the despot, his two sons, and Rabshakeh ! 
Not one strong hold of Israel could they approach with a hand of harm ! Not one 
arrow took effect in any one fortress of Z ion. They missed their aim : they lost their 
cause: they lost their honor, they lost their whole host! The Mighty God of Zion 
breathed on them in the burning wrath of his Samiel, — and lo! they were all dead 
men ! The few struggling partizans, made their Retreat, in death like silence, and 
with unutterable confusion. God fights against all anti-christian powers I 

Then, mark the end of the despot. The hands of those whom he trained up to 
wickedness, did overthrow him ! As for Rabshakeh ; — as j-ou are admirers of tradi- 
tion, let us seek his fate in the Misnah, and' the Gemara of the Talmud. It is very 
obscure ; but the most feasible may be this : — being a great patron of human igno- 
rance, he kept the people as blind and ignorant as possible. He hated reading and 
writing : it only made people averse, he would say, from the patient bearing of the 
yoke of priestcraft and despotism ! He took care to bum ever^'^ copy of the book of 
the law, that he conM find in the people's houses. But even the longest chain has an 
end. The tide of popular fury turned on him ; and banished him into some eremite's 
cell, to lead a life of penance and unalloyed misery. And he died as he lived, the 
enemy of God, the curse of civil society, and the execration of all enlightened people I 
His bleached bones v*-ere found by some humane shepherd, who placed them under 
a large rock, upon which, in process of time, some one wrote an epitaph. This epi- 
taph probably found its way into the Gemara : and some amateurs having translated 
it. — the famous Robert Bums added the charms of a poetic version to it, in the fol- 
lowing manner: — 

'• Beneath these vngsed stones 

Lie old Rabshakeh's bones ; 
O death I it's my opinion. 
You ne'er took such 
Ablatherin' bitch, 

Into your dark dominion ! !"' 

Yours very truly, and respectfully. 
W. C. Brownlee. 

Notice. — The priests having finally retreated, and havhig entirely given up their 
cause, in this discussion it would be as discreditable to address anymore letters to them, 
as it would be in a soldier, who keeps in his ranks, to consort, or correspond with 
cowards and deserters. I shall claun the continued and kind indulgence of the christ- 
ian community while I go on in the regular discussion, in Letters addressed to the 
Members of the Roman Cathohc Church: retaining my right, however, to retum to 
the charge, should the Priests come out with "more last words.*' 

New York, August 13, 1833. W. C. B. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 173 



PART II, 

LETTER I. 

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

*' There is not such a great difference between our church, and the Protestant, that you 
should leave us/' — said a priest to a young convert to Christianity. — " There is only this dif- 
ference between us," replied the youth: — " The Roman catholics worship the god whom 
the priest creates out of the wafer ; we worship the God who creates the priest." — Malan. 

Fellow Citizens: — The priests having left the field clear, and undisturbed to us, I 
could think of no other to whom I should address myself, than to you. And I beg 
leave to do it, with great respect, and christian salutations. It can neither be to your 
interest, nor to mine, to be deceived in this solemn matter. And God knows I wish 
your salvation as well as my own. Permit me, therefore, to present myself respect- 
fully before you. And until we become better acquainted, let me introduce myself 
with a pleasant parable of olden times. 

Once upon a time, the good St. Peter was sitting, in the cool of the morning, under 
a rich clustering vine, in the lovely green vale of Jehosaphat ; and in earnest discourse 
with a friend. The holy Apostle, and he, had retired from the dust and heat of Jeru- 
salem ; and they were discussing an important question, in a grave and solemn man- 
ner, befitting such men. The apostle's friend was a chief priest: a noted man; and 
a bosom friend to Nicodemus. His faith had been shaken in the Jewish system ; and 
he was devoutly inquiring how he should arrive fully at the truth, and be saved. He 
had discovered with no small degree of alarm, that truth was no longer in the Jewish 
system, and church. The pure w^ord of God, the Jewish doctors had impiously dis- 
placed ; and rendered void by the fatal traditions of their fathers. The pure system 
of Moses was no longer honored and received by them : and, with a singular incon- 
sistency, what was abolished in the ceremonial law, they now clung to with great ob- 
stinacy. The high priest, and his associates in despotism, had usurped power over 
the souls, and consciences of men : they set no bounds to their avarice, pride, and 
luxury. They traded "in the souls of men :" they even professed to open heaven ; 
and shut the gates of hell, at the ecclesiastical chancery prices ! They sold pardons, 
and permissions to sin, at all rates ; from Judas's sum of 30 shekels, up to the talent 
of silver, and the lordly talent of gold ! 

"The temi)le is converted into a house of merchandize — my dear Peter," said the 
chief priest, as he faimed his burning brow witli his snow white turban, — "In the 
midst of this universal corruption, the kingdom of God I cannot find. Now, in as 
much as he declared to our fiither Abraham, tljat his church should never fail, and 
repeated it to David, and all the prophets; and as it would be mockery to look for it 
amid the universal C()rru})tions of our high priest, and our chief ])riests and rulers of 
the synagogue ; — it must be found somewhere else. Is it to be found in the ncH\ nj)^ 
start, christian cfiiirch, just organized : or is it not to be found ovcu there V 

16* 



174 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSr. 

St. Peter opened up to him the scriptures, and went on, comparing the Old Testa* 
ment doctrine, with those of Christ, in order to show him that this new, reformed^ 
vpstart church, — the christian church alone, held the whole and only genuine truths of 
God. And he was patiently bringing home to his heart, with many prayers, these 
apostolical instructions : and instructing him in the right way of the Lord God of hia 
fathers ; while he kept a strict eye on a singular, suspicious, and ill-looking stranger, 
who had entered the arbor ; and had placed himself not far from them. He was be- 
decked in a fantastic dress, of many colors, neither exactly Jewish, nor altogether 
Gentile in its shape : and there was a wildness in his looks, and antic gestures, 
which indicated the phrenzy of a madman ; or, to say the least, the air of a designing 
knave ! 

St. Peter went on, discoursingof the Trinity, the incarnation, the atonement; faith, 
and repentance ; and the justification of a sinner by faith in Christ, without the deeds 
of the law ; and thence the absolute necessity of good works, and a holy life. He 
was very particular in showing him that God only is the supreme Lord of the con- 
science : that no human or ghostly power on earth, should be permitted by any who 
calls himself a man, and not a dumb brute, to usurp power over the conscience ; or 
dictate a form of religion to it. " Think, read, judge, decide for yourself None of the 
Jewish priests, nor any priest under these heavens, can dare to prescribe to your con- 
science. Go to God's law, and word, and his inspired apostles. God speaks: 
listen ; obey ; and count that man an emissary of the de^dl, fresh from the burning 
lake, who would dare to lord it over your conscience ; or offer to appease God for you ; 
or to pardon your sins for a few Jerusalem coppers ! He is the arch impostor, — the 
antichrist; of which our beloved brother John will tell you more fully." 

Here the singular stranger grew so impatient, that he could no longer contain him- 
self: and he rudely cut short the apostle's discourse, by abruptly crying out, — "Do 
you call me the impostor and the antichrist?" Then addressing himself to the chief 
priest, for he was evidently a stranger to St. Peter, — he besought him not to give heed 
to one word uttered by that " hoary headed deceiver ,-" for the holy order of the high 
priest, and the chief priests have the entire keeping of men's consciences. And they 
negotiate with heaven the whole of man's salvation for a moderate consideration. — 
But I am forgeling himself To give divine efficacy to my words, and confound all 
heretics, I must have in my soul the intention ; and on my body the consecrated apos- 
tolical raiment, — such as St. Peter the prince and pope : were he present, — would 
laud and bless." And upon that he applied himself to the work. 

He rose up and made certain genuflections, and prostrations to the east and west : 
he then decked himself out in party-colored patches and rags, of red, purple, and 
white, and green ; and putting on a thing resembling three crowns, on his head; he 
went to an adjoining thicket, and cut a tall rod the top of which he twisted into a 
shepherd's crook. And coming gravely up ; he stood with a solemn, demure, half 
crying countenance, for a few moments ; then whispered "Now 1 have got the unction 
of holy intention ; now for the grace procuring gestures, and genuflections." And 
with that he applied himself gravely to a succession of bodily exercises, forty-Jive in 
number ; sometimes he bowed : then he kneeled : then he elevated his arms aloft. 
And having counted his f or ty-ffth, he sat down quite out of breath. " Now," said 
he, " what I am going to say, no one dare gainsay, under peril of salutary cold 
steel, and the hot f re ; — to wit, heading and burning I This crown, the emblem of 
power, and this sceptre, the symbol of pastoral qualification and care, God Almighty 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY* 175 

made with his own hands ; and with his own hands, he placed them on my head, and 
in these hands!" 

The apostle would have interrupted him: — but he silenced him with an outrageous 
clamor; and he went on, engrossing- the whole conversation himself. "-I am God's 
vice-god, upon earth : I am supreme: by me kings and priests reign and act r I am 
the lord of the human conscience : God has put this ghostly power in my unworthy 
hands, who am a servant of servants." — And while the words of humility were on 
his lips, he tossed his sceptre : and waved his lordly triple crown on high. — Then he 
went on: — " The revelation which God has given to the Hebrews and the Christians, 
derives all its authority and all its evidence from me : it is the word of God if I say it : 
it is not, if I say nay : I add to it, and I take away ; and who shall set bounds to this 
spiritual sceptre ! I have the keys of hell and of death ! I open heaven : and I 
open hell ! I shut them both as I will ! Through me alone, God speaks ! Through 
me alone, men shall apply to God. I am on earth, what the Almighty is in heaven! 
Hence I have power to alter what Christ did establish : I can add to his doctrines, 
when it can be made profitable to bring in much gold. I can add as many sacra- 
ments as I please to his humble and plain two. For this is also profitable ; — if not 
for doctrine, — at least for establishing my supreme power over the souls of my slaves, 
and minions. And they also bring much silver and gold to our coffers. Then gold 
hniigs might : and might, according to sound ghostly policy, always makes right! 
These are the maxims of my court !" 

Here the wrath ef St. Peter was kindled fiercely against him. He had hitherto 
set him down in his own mind, as stark mad ; and he had viewed him with pity. But 
as he went on in detail, he saw that he was a knave, possessed with a legion of raving 
devils! "Who is he?" said he to his host. "Verily I know him not;" — said the 
horror stricken chief priest : I took him at first, for some of your friends : then in my 
mind, I thought him a poor demoniac, humbly following in order to get the devil cast 
out of himself: he frequently, I thought, mentioned your name and your authority. 
I suspect that he was a noted companion of Judas Iscariot !" " Who are you? Who 
sent you, sirrah ?" cried St. Peter, addressing him in terms of strong indignation ; 
and unsubduable zeal for God's glory. 

" Who am I ?" replied he slowly and solemnly ; — " I am the spouse of the church ; 
and the church is my chaste and beautiful spouse. — God's vicegerent, and the infalli- 
ble vicar of Christ : I come from holy St. Peter the prince of the apostles." 

"Your proof, sirrah!" said Peter. " There is my proof !" said he gravely. And 
he held out a roll of parchment : " I certify this roll to be the true and genuine roll, 
and deed of right and power, conveyed to me, through lord pope St. Peter from 
God !" 

"Very well, sir impostor:" said Peter; — "you certify for that roll's authenticity: 
then pray, who certifies for t/ow?" " Why look ye here, — my pity on your weak- 
ness, old man ; — only inspect this roll ; and it will tell all about me ; and fully certify 
that I am the only legal claimant." 

" And what then, sir knave, will you do, if we ridicule this ludicrous reasoning in 
a circle?" said Peter. " Why, Pll tell thee, hoary headed doubter, — if any one ex- 
presses a doubt, — I have the sword, the axe, the fire, and the stake! like the sword of 
earthly kings, this is my holy spiritual weapon : my vltima ratio ! my unanswerable 
argument!" 

"What is your object," replied St. Peter;— "for you are a creature I never to my 



176 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

knowledge saw before, — is it your object to save men's souls ?" " That is a secondary 
object." " What is your primary object then ? You may suppose me to be your St. 
Peter, — and tell me." "You St. Peter! — you a plain fisherman, St. Peter! — why 
St. Peter wore his red, and purple, and fine white robes, and his golden mitre 1 
Christ made him prince of the apostolical college!" "Thou art stark mad, I tell 
thee," said St. Peter, — " but go on : dost thou set up thy kingdom solely to save men?" 
" Yes, I save them in the way of making a good job of it." " But, how ? I pray thee, 
go on." 

"Why heaven is a great way off; and the way is very steep; and my flock are 
not very steady, or moral, sometimes: — "Very well," said St. Peter, — "you lead 
them to the fountain of the Redeemer's blood, I hope." " It is far easier, I tell thee, 
ignorant man, to lead them to the basin of holy water.''' "Holy water!" cried St. 
Peter ; — " I do not know that thing ; and never heard of it before : but do you not 
teach the holy atonement to be the only sacrifice for the sins of man." " No, no ; we 
are inventing the thing called the mass, though it will take centuries to get men so 
well taught, as to leave to me all the right of thinking for them ; and then take my 
bare word for every tiling : to call black, white, and the devil, Christ, if I only say it !" 
" The mass P' said St. Peter: — "that is perfectly new to me : the IMaster never said a 
word of it: he appointeci the Holy Sapper, to commemorate hi^ cL^ath, and his one, 
real, and perfect atonement." 

"You know nothing at all :" cried the wild man, — " We need not the atonement of 
Christ ; ive offer up in the mass, daily, a sacrifice for the quick and the dead, to ap- 
pease God!" "Hold, in silence, thy blaspheming lips," cried St. Peter; "thou 
must be the Antichrist ! But what said you about getting your people near to the far 
distant heaven ? " Why, Ave make a sacrifice for them ; and what is defective in that 
we make up by putting the deceased souls into purgatory, and there, a smart burning 
of well applied flames, consumes in a salutary manner, all their dns, aud follies." 
" Well, that, we know, is taken from the abominable heathen; — but you do not mean 
to say that it has any thing to do with us, Christians ? I never taught it : and 
the Master never spoke of it : this he said, — ' The blood of Jesus washes all sins 
away.' That is God's only purgatory that I overheard of: for there is no other 
Savior than Jesus. "Bat what get you for all this? — Are your holy water and 
masses, and purgatory a free job?" 

" Oh ! no : we save souls in the waj' of making gold and silver, and building up 
our power ! If we condescend to spare the time from our luxuries and pleasures, souls 
should be very thankful ; and pay their fees with less grumbling!" "And as you 
have added five new sacraments," said St. Peter; — "do you bestow grace through 
them, free to all, and gratis ?" " Oh ! no : there is no divine eflficacy in one of them, 
unless the church's dues be paid: it is the church's dues: it is St. Peter's pence P' 
" So, then this marvellous and newly invented system is all adapted to make gain — 
these shepherds shear the sheep, and flay them, and take all the milk to themselves ! 
I thought that our Master had said, — 'Ho! every one that thirsteth, come, drink: 
come without money and without price,' God's word says this." " That may be," 
said the demon, "but times shall be changed : these were Christ's laws: but I speak 
now of owr hoUness's laws." " Why the Master had his children mainly among the 
poor;" said St. Peter; ' and to the poor is the gospel preached.'-' "No, no; our 
infallibles declare that the rich can buy pardons for any space, — limited only by the 
limit of money, where that stops short, reprobation begins! Know ye not that the 



Roman CATttOLtC CONTROVERSf. 17^7 

streets of Heaven are paved with gold. As we have the laying out of the city; and 
of course all the paving, how can we have paving of gold ready, in every street, 
unless the people give us their gold /" 

"Marvellously said:" whispered St. Peter, — "now do I see whither we have got: 
but repeat what thou saidst about a certain Saint Peter.'' " Why St, Peter was the 
prince of the apostles, infallible, and" — " ah !" cried the apostle interrupting him, 
"where gottest thou that novelty: — ay! prince he must have been, because he was 
a blundering, forward man: infallible, too," added the humble apostle with deep sor- 
row ; — •' they have got me to be what I never heard of from the Master, — infallible, 
verily! Ah! this mockery is offered because I did deny my Lord! I am humbled 
and mortified," continued he; "they call me infallible and prince!' I suppose be- 
cause JPaul sternly rebuked me, and showed himself justly my superior ! But go on," 
added he aloud : " After this ebullition what shall we hear next, I wonder?" " Why 
we select St, Peter to be the foundation of our church." "The blessed Master keep 
me out of such a church, with such a rotten foundation" — exclaimed St. Peter with 
holy indig-nation. "Give me, O my blessed God, give me grace to belong to that 
church that is built on the Rock of eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ! That is the 
Christian church," — cried St. Peter. "And that is the only, pure, and immutable 
church, which I also long to be a member of," — said the pious chief priest; but go 
on; let us hear all!" 

"You know nothing," — cried the Demoniac in reply — " did I not lay hold o^holy 
intention ? Do I not stand up in my sanctified robes ? Am I not, therefore, infal- 
lible? If you doubt, you shall be damned, by me ! I will cast you into purgatory; 
and none of my holy priests shall pray you out — unless for a ruinous smn from your 
heirs ! 

Here the apostle, eyeing the motley buffoon from head to foot, burst out into a loud 
laughter : but, suddenly recollecting himself he said' — "I am determined to hear the 
possessed mad man out : go on : I will not interrupt thy extravagance : the pagan 
kings claim power over sun, moon, and stars ; but thou art " the wild beast whose tail 
sweeps the third part of the stars from heaven :" and with thy paws thou thr^west 
men into sheol ! Go on, I pray thee." 

"Having laid my foundation of empire on St. Peter, I shall go forth to subdue all 
nations, kingdoms, tongues, and countries. My power extends to all the world, and 
all heaven, and all hell !" 

Here the apostle sprang up from his seat; he could not stand it. " Nay, then. Sir 
Gascon, have done, at last. I see who thou art. Our sovereign and blessed Master 
Jesus Christ, warned us of the great Western maniac prince, who would be intoxicated 
with the blood of the saints. The system was conceived and plotted in hell: and 
thou art the demon let loose for a season ; and charged with the execution of it I 
Already, I see, art thou wandering to and fro through the earth, and hatching thy 
diabolical plots. Now, hear me, I am St. Peter! and had not the Master drawn the 
veil over thy mind, thou mightest have known me." Then, by a holy impulse, he 
laid the glorious system o^ the truth of Christ, as op[)osed to the systeni of Antichrist, 
before the vigorous intellect of the mischievous demon : it shone brilliantly as a 
polished steel mirror of the daughters of Judah : the truth beamed from it wiih unut- 
terable brightness, and flashed over his guihy ct)nscience and heart. 

The demon, who is also the soul and spirit of Antichrist, cast his small, sunk, and 
twinkling eyes, first, on St. Peter, with fear and terror; and then on all the objects 



178 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

around him, exclaiming: " Art thou come then, to betray, in thy apostolical \\Titings, 
and those of thy associates, the secret of our kingdom, which I have thoughtlessly 
blabbed out ! Art thou come to torment me and mine before the time ?" Then, with 
a hallow scream, he fainted away under the beams of the truth. And a sweeping 
whirlwind and vivid flashes of fire, and roaring thunder, the symbol of heaven's irre- 
sistible vengeance, — swept him away down the vale, into the Dead Sea ! 

Fellow Citizns : — I need not stop here to interpret the parable. Your own good 
sense will lead you to understand it. 

I am, fellow citizens, with christian salutations, 
yours faithfully. 
August, 1833. W. C. Brownlee. 






LETTER II. 

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

" We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the 
proper things of the bodv, accordinff as he hath done, either good or evil." — Douay Test. 2 
Cor. V. 10. 

Fellow Citizens: — If you will unite cordially with St. Peter, in the wholesome 
doctrines here taught by him, in his replies to the evil spirit of Antichrist, then, 
assuredly, you and I shall be better acquainted: and you will not count me your 
enemy, because I tell you the truth. 

No one of us, in this "land of the free and the home of the brave," wishes you ill. 
No one of us ever says, " ill-luck to you.'''' No one of us does wish you to forsake 
the true religion of your fathers. They are designing men, and impostors, who seek 
to persuade ^-ou that we have any such intention. We do solemnly assure 3'ou before 
God, that all we wish and beg of you is this ; — that, as men, as immortal beings, who 
are soon to stand before the awful throne of Almighty God, to be judged, each one 
for himself— 3-0U would study the holy scriptures ; and draw your religion out of God's 
word alone. It is God's word. God speaks to you and to us, in it : it is not obscure : 
make the trial and you will see : he speaks to us as plainly and clearly, as does a 
father to his children ! 

Break the chains of priestcraft in pieces, and be free ! It makes you poor, — who are 
laboring men : it keeps you in abject poverty, and unsuiferable bondage. You see 
the highly intelligent and learned men of your church despising, and laughing priest- 
craft to scorn ! Do the well informed ever go to the abominable confessional of a 
licentious priest ? Would the genteel and well informed among you permit their 
wives and their daughters to go to hear such infamous and obscene questions put to them 
by the bloated and pestilential lips of the priests! No, never! Resolve to be free 
from this cruel yoke. Go to Almighty God alone for pardon : go and confess to Him 
alone : he asks no money : he never sent any priests to rob you, to pay for pardons. 
Go in humble faith, to the only Savior, the great God, our Redeemer: he alone can 
pardon. It is impossible that any thinking and reflecting mind can, for a moment, 
l)elieve that the injinitely holy God, would commit to incontinent wicked priests, the 
power of absolving from sin ! A priest rebuking wickedness ! Behold the renovation 
of Milton's scene of " Satan reproving and chiding sin." Who can believe, — who can 
be so much of a knave, as to believe and teach that Almighty God who commands 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 179 

you " to come, without money and without price," would send a priest to harter in 
pardon, and sell absolutions, and take money for letting souls out of purgatory ? Re- 
solve at length to rise up and be free from this worst of paganism ! Break the cruel 
chains of priestcraft from around your immortal and noble souls! Resolve, and 
declare, and appeal to heaven, that you will, that you shall be free, like all other 
christians around you ! 

Can any one of your families be said to enjoy liberty ; and mutual confidence in 
each other, when a ghostly tyrant establishes such an espionage over you; and 
employs the wife to watch the husband, and the husband the wife? Where is 
liberty and mutual confidence, and family peace enjoyed, when all the members of 
that family, are constituted spies over each other, and carry all the family secrets to 
the intermeddling priest! How can you, in one instance, trust your wife's honor to 
a man who puts the most loathsome and obscene questions to her ; and does it to 
entice her affections away from you ? How can you answer it at the bar of God, lor 
allowing a modest and innocent young child to go to the confessional ; to have her 
mind, and body poisoned, and polluted by a priest, at whose confessional, I do pub- 
licly and boldly say, no pure and virtuous woman can appear, without being shocked: 
and without actually suffering the loss of modesty and moral character! The dark 
ages have rolled away : therefore, no sober minded man in our republic can sink to 
such a degradation as to make such a bargain with a wretched priest, as did the late 
duke of Brunswick, who made his bargain and paid his price to the '•''lioly''^ priest to 
he damnedin his stead, if he should happen to be damned for his apostacy from Christ 
to Antichrist! 

I am perfectly aware that in purely Roman catholic lands, no sentiment is more 
common than this, that the priest undertakes to negotiate the whole concern of salvation 
for his victims ! I implore you to rise from this state of infinite degradation. A man 
who can think and act as the Duke did, has a meanness of soul that is immeasurably 
contemptible! Nay, he cannot be a believer in Christianity ! Nay, he cannot be a 
believer in a future judgment, or rewards and punishments ! Nay, he is not even a 
believer in the existence of God ! Permit yourselves no more to be the victims of an 
infidel priesthood. In the name of God I beseech you, remember that if you die in 
your sins, after following the wicked priest, God will condemn you both. Every 
priest, whose conscience is not absolutely 'seared as with a hot iron,' knows that ht 
neither will, nor can take your place. Bankrupt and beggared, he has no credit, — no 
influence in the court of heaven. His own damnation is deep enough : and he can- 
not answer for you ! 

Open your eyes to the infamous imposture of purgatory, practised on you to cheat 
you out of your money ! As certainly as God is Almighty and just, and holy, so cer- 
tainly is there no such place, or things as purgatory ! The vile fiction, we have for- 
merly shown you, is only a few centuries old. Mark the imposition. Dr. Varela has 
told you lately in a newspaper, that it is the doctrine of his church, that no man 
knows who, or how many, of your departed relatives are in purgatory ! ! Now, tell me, 
I beseech you, how you can permit yourselves, or your wives, to be robbed of your 
money> in order to bring souls out of it, when none of these priests, who get the wagest 
of their robbery, can even tell who is in purgatory ! Depend on it, my friends, if 
their masses, and their prayers, had any— even the least interest and favor with God, 
he would not conceal from them who, and how many of those are in the fires, fot 
whom they pretend to pray. 



186 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSV. 

This is not all : there is another sheer imposture in this matter. It is not true that 
your priests either do, or can, say all the masses for the departed souls. If they did, 
they must be saying masses, day, and night, every hour of all their lives ! You need 
not, — you ought not to pay any more for at least a thousand years — for your priests, 
every where, at least, are a thousand years in arrears ! — Make them pay up in masses, 
before you pay another copper ! Ho^v is it that you are so slow, — so utterly without 
judgment, at making equitable bargains ? 

The late Rev. Dutch minister of Sourland, Somerset, N. Jersey, was very intimate 

with father? , who occasionally officiated there. Once, while in a jocose and 

free conversation, the Dominie said to the priest, — " Father P , it is all nonsense 

to profess that you believe in purgatory : you have too much learning and good sense 
to believe in any such thing! Come now, ami not right?" "Ah!" said father 

P , "you are too severe: but come now, I declare solemnly, that I do believe in 

purgatory, as earnestly as any other priest ! I am honest and loyal to Holy Mother." 
And he shook his vasty sides, and laughed right merrily ; and added, — " Come over to 
my chambers, and I declare to you, that I will show you purgatory." " What — show 
me purgatory?" cried the astonished Dominie ; — " Yes, you shall see it, on my honor, 
with your own eyes !" 

You may be assured that the curious Dominie lost no time in visiting the priest. And, 
after a refreshment of no ordinary a kind, — for there were no temperance societies, in 
those days, the Dominie reminded his host of the promise touching the vision of pur- 
gatory. " To be sure" — said the father, — " You shall see it : follow me." He con- 
ducted hun into the confessional ; and approaching a small bureau, he pulled out the 
drawer containing some silver pieces, — such as dollars, half-dollars, and occasionally 
some few shining bits of gold ; — then turning on his guest the most quizzical look im- 
aginable, he said — " There, my good sir, is my purgatory : and the only one I know of, 
or care for!" 

My respected friends, every one knows, that in a figure of speech, the effect is often 
put for the cause. Here is an instance of it. The silver and gold were the effect of 
his victims' belief in purgatory. The priest here gravely took the effect for the cause : 
he believed firmly in the visible effect ; while he left the cause to the faith of " silly fools 
laden with inicpit}^," who believe without evidence, and trust in the existence of a 
non-entity ! The most of the priests may, perhaps, be as learned, and as wise as this 
father : but, most assuredly, few of them are as honest and as candid as he was. 

I have thus respectfully, and most earnestly urged on you the duty of asserting 
your independence, and claiming your unalienable birth-right, to think for yourselves, 
and choose your own religion. Do not, any more, repeat what assuredly is not true, 
that we aim at persuadhig you to forsake your religion, and the religion of your 
fathers, This is sheer priestcraft. The priests have taught you to say this. They 
do it merely for effect, and deception. We ask you to abandon, — not what you ever 
voluntarily chose ; not what you embraced after accurate scriptural research, and 
earnest prayer to God for fight; but that which has been palmed on you for refigion! 
Had you sought it simply from God, and out of his holy and only inspired Word, you 
would have found that which we would never have asked you to forsake. What we 
beg you to abandon is, that system of mental tyranny ; those human devices, not 
found in all God's word: that cunningly devised system, which takes away your pro- 
perty without giving you any instruction, or any equivalent whatever in return ; which 
Tobs you of real peace : which, by imposing flattery, leads your souls astray, from 



1 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 181 

the only shepherd and bishop of souls, the Lord Jesus Christ; and chains you to the 
car of an unrelenting priestly vassalage, and the worst of all despotism! We implore 
you, fellow citizens, to hasten your escape from this yoke of bondage. Read, — think, 
—and boldly assert your rights to judge for yourselves ! Sustain the dignity and glory 
of your nature. In this happy land the souls of all are free, but yours. The chains 
of the dark age are still rivetted on you, by ghostly tyranny. Reject with indigna- 
tion, and spurn from you the disgusting legends, traditions, and impostures of men, 
who are six centuries behind all other people in knowledge, and morals, and religion ! 
Of men, who reap gain from ungodliness, whose untiring effort is to stop the progress 
of the Bible and christian knowledge ; and whose pleasure and gain lie in keeping 
the species wrapped in the profoundest ignorance ! Hitherto have the priests dictated 
for a religion to your consciences, what God never taught by his prophets ! And 
this they know as well as we do ! These inventions, and their mummery, and mock- 
ery of God and of man, are what we implore you to abandon. Choose your religion 
out of the pure and unadulterated word of God ; and no longer yield your souls a prey 
to the impostures of ignorant, profligate, and designing priests ! We appeal to the 
Most High, our common Lord and Master, that we long over you, to see you raised 
to the spiritual liberty, which all your fellow citizens enjoy, in our happy Republic. 
You only of all the Republican family, have not rid yourselves of the execrable spi- 
ritual vassalage, from which, by the grace of God, our fathers set themselves free ! 

One of our fellow citizens, the other day, gave a Bible to a Roman catholic neigh- 
bor, in Brooklyn. He is a respectable man: and he can read and write. It was 
given him as a great curiosity; and he promised to read it. But he soon brought it 
back. His own mind filled with the tradition.^ and nonsense of priestcraft, under tiie 
whisperings of his spiritual guide, was itself the standard and rule. For tradition and 
prejudice are the real and genuine rule of faith of the men, who exercise their souls 
by proxy, and think by proxy ; and believe by proxy : and who, if they drop unexpect- 
edly into hell, they expect to be recalled by priestly proxy, or else they have the con- 
solation that their proxy is to be "damned in their stead!" He threw the Bible to 
his neighbour. — "Take it back" cried he, ^'' it is a dangerous book! It contains dam- 
nable errors; and it has no Roman catholic religion in it: not even a word for "the' 
Mother of God," " the Queen of Heaven." I go with the priest in all that he says : 
and if he be damned; then I am willing to be damned too !" This authentic anec- 
dote I am prepared to prove by two respectable citizens who stood b}^ and heard him 
utter it. 

In some political struggles, when party spirit has run high, we have heard of some 
warm politicians ^^ going the whole hog!''' But here is a novel display. Here is a 
daring spirit who carried the bold experiment into tlic world of mind and immortality ! 
Here is a master spirit, who bows so lowly before the throne of Antichrist; and burns 
with such zeal to support the crusade of priestcraft, and despotism against God's lioly 
scriptures, and the christian religion, that he is prepared to sacriricc body, and life, and 
even his soul, and even heaven ; and plunge into the gulph of perdition, to grace the 
cause, and win a triumph for the prince of darkness ! 

But, pardon me, I ask you, my respected friends, if this man acted widi the digtuty 
of a man ? Is this conduct rational, or befitting a human being 1 Can siicli a wretch 
as that, be fit to grace any office, or occuj)y any ])ost, — but the liandle of the oar of a 
galley slave; or the handle of the hammer of a wretched culprit in the mines o 
Mexico, or Peru ? 

37 



183 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

Here is another specimen, I heard it uttered the other day by one of yourselves, he 
was a good cathoUc. He " swore he was in the full faith ; and beUeved all that the 
priests believed : he was not quite so moral, he frankly admitted, as some others : but 
"he swore he was of the genuine faith.''' "Now, Doyle," said I, "what do you 
believe?" "I believe as the holy church believes." "Well, Doyle, what does th« 
church believe?" "Arrah now, she believes, I swear, exactly what I believe!" 
"Well said, Doyle, but tell us what you both believe?" He raised his fair Milesian 
face, and declared with the best humored smile in the world, — "Arrah! now we do 
believe exactly alike the same thing." 

Having now, I trust, formed an acquaintance, and having mutually refreshed our 
memories with what we have gone over, in my former Letters to the Priests : I beg 
leave here to pause ; offering soon to present myself on a graver subject, and in a 
graver manner. I am, fellow citizens, -vs-ith respectful and christian salutations, 

Your sincere friend, &c. 

W. C. B. 



LETTER HL 

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH* 

AvTjjO 6 (ptvyuiVj Kai -roKiv ixax^riaerai. 

'• The man who fights, and runs away 
JMay hveto fight another day." 

Demosthe7ies. 

Fellow Citizens : — You have penetrated the reasons, before now, why the bish- 
op's three champions have deserted your cause ; and abandoned the defence of " Holy 
]Mother." At any rate, every intelligent Protestant perceives the reasons. One of 
them was this : — There is a certain rule laid down by the Jesuits, whose order has 
been revived, to plant Romanism in our land ; and sap the foundation of our repub- 
lican institutions. That rule binds the consciences of the Jesuits, my late opponents. 
The rule I alluded to, is thus expressed by Busaeus, ^' Never discv^s the doctrines 
of Holy Mother Church imth a heretic, if it can possibly be avoided.'" You all know 
how scrupulously my antagonists obeyed this Jesuitical rule. They poured out their 
ebulitions of malignity against the only rule of faith ; and exhausted the last shaft of 
infidel animosity agEiinst God's holy word. This the}' would do. But they shunned 
all discussion of their church's doctrines and rites. Another reason was this : — when 
they entered the lists, they had no idea that we possessed the books, which we have ; 
and which are written by their great men. They had no conception that these works, 
now in our possession, and which we have been quoting, were in the United States ; 
but were on the contrary slumbering in the monastic libraries of Spain, Italy, and 
Austria. Hence they began, and actually practised, for a while, the ruse de gutrrt^ 
common with all Jesuits in places where the people have not their books ; and know 
not their tenets. They denied their own books : they denied their real doctrines. 
But it is impossible to describe their astonishment and confusion, when we quoted 
the originals of their own works, and named page and chapter. From that time, 
thej evidently drew back : and dealt no more m denying their books and principle-s. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 183 

One of my antagonists exclaimed in the hearing of a friend of mine, — " Where in 
the mischief, do these fellows get all these books !" If it would be in any way edify- 
ing I would tell him. Under providence we are indebted to Napoleon, and his ''re- 
forming" troops, for many of them. These soldiers broke up many a Jesuit's and 
Inquisitor's library, in their visit to Italy, Spain, and Naples. Thes€ volumes were 
sold to these "reforming soldiers;" as plunder, profitable to themselves : and it is 
probable, moreover, that they had wit enough to discover that any body ; even heretics, 
would make a better use of these volumes than the dull, sleek-headed, fat, contented, 
ignorant monks of the cells, ever could do. I have in my possession a Latin work 
308 years old. It was written by the bishop of Rochester against Luther, in defence 
of king Harry VIII. before that prince dashed off the pope's crown and put it on his 
own head. I have another tome of 3000 pages folio, and lately the property of one 
of the pope's " Apostolical Protonotaries ;" whose name and coat of arms are bla- 
zoned in front of it. It is a precious body of Jesuitism, — its laws, and doctrines, 
drawn at full length ; — namely, the works of L. Molina. And whatever uninform- 
ed men may say, these very doctrines of Jesuitism, as we shall show ere long, are re- 
vived in our country by the newly revived sect, in all their immutable virulence. 
He is unpardonably ignorant of European history, who does not know the genius of 
Jesuitism, the master mece of Satan's deepest and utmost stretch of invention : and 
also that every government of Europe has denounced them as equal to legions of in- 
carnate fiends : and the unrelenting foes of liberty and rehgion : the desperate ene- 
mies of God and man ! And that American citizen is as unpardonably ignorant of 
the present state of things in Europe, and his own Republic, who does not know that 
Jesuitism has been lately revived with full powers by the popes, with one grand spe- 
cijic object ; openly avowed here and in Europe, namely, to overrun this republic ; 
put down our republican institutions : establish despotism : and finally, the Romish 
hiei-archy, and the inquisition : and then organize crusades against the Ptotestant 
religion ! ! It is true, we smile at their diabolical and fruitless intentions ; and appeal 
to the Most High for protection. But be it remembered ; — this is to be prevented by 
the glorious schemes, and the means now used by the christian public : and by the 
missionaries, and by Sabbath schools in the vallies of the Mississippi : and by the Tract 
and Bible societies : — and not by these lukewarm christians, and lukewarm poUti- 
cians in our couniry, who cry, — -'no danger," — "no fear!" And who, moreover, 
betray on whose side they are, by sending their children to be trained up by licentious 
and expelled European Jesuits ! And who betray their country's cause by contribu- 
ting sums of money to build up Jesuit's chapels and colleges, out of which are to 
issue men, who will make deadly war against our republican institutions, and our 
religious liberty ! ! Who does not see that this is treason against our republic ! 

These are some of the reasons why your priest's have retreated from the fickl. Tlie 
object of Jesuits is to carry on their work in silence, darkness, and concealment. — 
They are determined secretly to undermine us. And when they think they have the 
power, we shall hear of the American gun-powder plot ! Hence our i)riosts 
hate nothing more than the exposure of their real doctrines, and their real object. 
And, hence, fellow citizens of all ranks, you perceive the reason why I must go on ; 
and tear the whole mask off from tlic face of Jesuitism ; and the whole of the faded 
purple robe off the old paralytic limbs of " Mother Babylon !" I have received let- 
ters from many parts of the United States; particularly from New England, Vir- 
ginia, Ohio, Kentucky; and the "far West," urging mo to go on. These contro- 



184 



R0BIA5 CATHOLIC COTROVERST. 



versial Letters of New- York, and Philadelphia, are read v.-ith. a\'idity, by» perhaps, 
four milliotis of oiir fellow citizens. Does any man think that I can prove recreant 
to my God, and my country ; and hke the priests, turn my back and retreat ? Shall 
lobey two or three individuals ; and refuse the loud call of millions ? No! sooner 
let my arm fall from my shoulder blade I I shall not stop witU 1 am done : and the 
priests know what that means. I throw myself on the kind indulgence of the chris- 
tian and political pubhc, who have hitherto sustained me. And I entreat of all my 
fellow citizens, a patient and full hearing. 

I shall now go on with tlie regular discussion. — I have despatched three marks of 
your priest's church. I now beg your attention, fellow citizens, respectfully, to the 
examination of the next mark. 

Fourth. — Your sa^'ctitt. By this attribute of their church and priesthood, your 
priests mean to convey the idea that they, their associates, and popes, are really 
HOLT. They are quite separated from the wicked men of this wicked world : they 
are HOLT I They care nothing about power: nothing about money, — \-ile trash ! 
They would not take it from their devout and pure disciples I They are above it, — 
and above the world, and above its dainties I Revelry £ind wine, and mirth, are to 
tae HOLT and spotless priesthood, an utter abomination ! It niakes them even fain^ 
at the idea of social company I Their spirits die away in them at the idea of earthly 
joys, and merry entertainments ! They are holt ! They are sublimely weaned 
trom the world. A dinner on meats, and icine on Fridays, at home, or in a steamboat, 
would shock and kill them outright! The very presence of a female, — the very 
name of vrife, would make them expire in fits, and give up the ghost 1 1 

This is not all. They are holt in their pope and cardinals, who have not yet 
practically beheved in the existence of the Deitj-. The prince bishops of the old world' 
who boast that they beheve in no other world than the present, are holt l The 
priests who know not the first elements of rehgion, are holt unto their g'orf.'" Their 
rites and doctrines, all invented since the sixth century, and invented by t^Tants and 
knaves, to plunder the people of the fruits of their industn.-, are all holt ! Their vest- 
ments of motley color, and unmatched shape, are ail holt. If a priest ^'Sicears by 
his holy vestments, '' as every devout Roman catholic knows, it is an oath which none 
of the simple faithful ever doubts. In a word what the priest does, is holy ; what the 
priest says is holy; what he blesses is holy ; what he consecrates, such as rehcs, were 
they even the bones of a convict, or a Turk — they are holy saintly relics I The 
chapel is holy : the floor is holy : the altar is holy : the candles are holy : the water 
is holy: the oil is holy : the incense and its smoke are holy! All that is absurd, and 
stupid, and outrageous on common sense, — such as the wafer consecrated into a God» 
ishaiy. All — all is holy, except only such small concerns as these; namely: the 
soul, the heart, and the lives of the priests, and their victims I "\Mien the priest ut- 
ters holy anathemas on all but his own sect, he is holy ! "\Mien he dooms the whole 
Protestant world to hell, he is holy ! When he grants absolution for sin at the stated 
price, in the pope's chancery book — and blots out iniquity on the graduated scale of 
pounds, sliillings, and pence, he is holy ! When he grants an indulgence at a stipu- 
lated simi, to secure an indemnity against future penalties and sins, just as far as the 
sum, fijxed upon, goes, he is holy ! In fine, the centre of all apostacy, sin, tyTann^' 
persecution, and ghostiy despotism, is pronounced at Rome to be holiness. And he 
who bears the title and Uverj' of Antichrist, is called "His holiness," in the ab- 
stract I And on the same principle, when the princes and rulers under the chief 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 185 

prince of darkness, address each other in council, in Milton's Pandemonium, it is quite 
supposable that in courtesy they politely address each other by the names and titles 
of what they once were, — as "Your holiness!" "Your sublime gravity ! Your 
immaculate virtue !" And all this takes place while they are plotting the ruin of the 
blessed Redeemer's church ! And every student of human nature, and of things, 
knows that with deep designers and profligate men, there is a special advantage in 
calling things by names the perfect reverse of the truth ! If I plot the ruin of my 
country, I assume the name of patriot, and clamor loudly about patriotism ! If I am 
going to utter the most palpable lies, and fictions, and slanders, — I call my pages 
"Truth Teller!" If I am going to persecute, murder, and massacre good men; 
and extirpate the true religion of Christ, I call myself "His Holiness." If, like 
Satan, a masterspirit tries to do the work of darkness, " he transforms himself into an 
angel of light !" 

I am aware that no Roman priest believes what he utters about "-^ holiness. ^^ It is 
used simply for effect ; to rivet the chains of deluded vicdms ! 

The entire argument of their champion Dr. Milner of England, is this. "If the 
church was holy once, she is holy still ; because the church never changes her doc- 
trines, nor suffers any one in her, to change them." Letter 19. In this sophism, he 
takes the " church," in one sense ; namely, to be the church of God: in the rest of his 
sentence, he takes it for granted, without any proof, that the Romish church is the only 
church. And hence he infers that the Romish sect is the only and entire church of 
God ; and, thence, that the Romish sect is the church in heaven : and the church on 
earth I And, from this unparalleled impudence of assumption, he tries to compose 
his muscles into si.lScient gravity, so as to infer that the Romish church is holy ! 

This is, precisely, the sophistry which pervades our vicar general's one sermon, 
which he preaches on this subject, always, and over all the world. He first sets 
about proving that " God's church is holy." He then solemnly concludes, not with' 
out a little pompous bravado, that "holy mother church of Rome is all the world 
over, pure and holy!" It is remarakble that he never took it into his head to prove 
that the church of Rome is the church of God; which he behoved of necessity to do, 
in order to prove her holy. His fatal logic leaves out, entirely, the connecting pre- 
mise ! On this principle, and mode of argument, the Jews have infinitely the advan^ 
tage of him. " We the Jews once were holy, as no believer in the Old Testament can 
deny." But once holy, always holy ; for the church of God is immutable : no matter, 
though we forsake the laws and doctrines of our fathers !" Hence the Jews constitute 
the one only true church !" And I shall venture to say that nO vi'-ar general, with 
the aid of all the bishops, and of all the popes, can refute their plea. And this is what 
every reasonable man must admit. 

Your priests try to compose their faces so far into a semblance of gravity, as to lay 
claims to spotless sanctity in doctrine, sanctity in rites, sanctity in priestliood and 
vestments; and sanctity in the children of holy mother! In my Letter V[L I 
established the fact that your priests have so far deceived you, my fellow citizens, 
that they have not left one distinctive genuine gospel doctrine pure and en(ir^% in your 
church. If there be one, I invite any sensible man to point it cait. "Why. the 
Romish priests believe in the Trinity and in one God!" That I beg leave to deny. 
The ))ricsts create a g;od at every mass : and nKU'eover, to the one only object of 
worship they have added " the nioiher of God," and some thirty thousand other saints 
and saintcsscs, to whom they oticr incense: and sa^' more }>rayers than to God! 



186 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



"But they believe in the incarnation of Christ." This I affirm they do not retair; 
*'pure and entire." The wafer converted into the body and blood, soul and divinity 
of Christ, is offered up as their incarnate god and christ."' 

"But, they adore the Holy Ghost." Can any one gravely profess to believe so» 
who has ever associated, in familiar intercourse, with a Romish priest ? Can any one 
soberly believe this who has read your priests' taunts about "the Holy Ghost?" 
No, I do assure you, fellow citizens, that they have no practical belief of the Holy 
Spirit : they believe not in his influences : nor in regeneration, nor in gospel hoh- 
ness: nor in "justification by faith, without the deeds of the law." Their incense, 
their holy water, their saintly intercessions, their priests' intention, and the efficacy of 
their rites to convey grace, have utterly excluded the Holy Ghost from their system of 
belief. Their rule of faith excludes the prophetical office of Christ : their mass and 
their own prieshood, have displaced Christ's priestly office: and the blasphemy and 
despotism of the pope's supremacy have taken the kingly crown off the head of 
our blessed Redeemer! In one word, the whole system of the Romish priestcraft is 
" a gospel" as completely different from the gospel of Christ, as the " great whore of 
Babylon," is different from the chaste spouse of Christ, and as different as the first 
born of Satan, is from the great God our Savior ! 

The only personal sanctity which your priests advocate, and require in your mem- 
bers, is wholly external. They must be sprinkled with holy water, and anointed 
with the holy chrism ; pay the church's dues : go, at least, once a year to confes- 
sion : and die in the bosom of " the church," meaning the Romish church: and, then, 
whatever may have been their unbelief, and vices, they are safe. The priest gives 
each man, even the most unreformed profligate, even a Charles II., or a Louis, a 
passport into heaven: and St. Peter and St. Patrick will suffer no refusal from any 
there ! Let me add that the priest's sanctity lies also all on the outer side. He must 
have had the lock shorn off, and his crown shaved ; and the consecrated vestments 
on, with its orthodox cut, and orthodox color : and all is holy ; — even though his hands 
be polluted with the worst of crimes; and his heart destitue of charity: and even 
possessed with a legion of devils! He is holy! in proof of this I quote your own 
accredited writers. Bellarmine, De Eccles. Lib. 3, cap. 7. There you will find it 
stated that a man who is a drunkard, a profane swearer-^nay, an infidel and "even 
a reprobate," may yet be a good member of the Romish church ! See also the Rhe- 
mish Annotations on John, ch. xv. and Sect, 1. So completely is gospel holiness lost 
in the Romish sect ! 

Your priests present exclusive claims to sanctity also from their possessing "the 
only holy institutions and rites," by which '•'■they convey grace,''' to their devotees. 
Pray what holy rites ? "Why, the seven sacraments." What! the five rites which 
you have added to our Lord's appointed sacraments. Do you really mean such 
sacraments as that of "holy matrimony?" "Yes, we mean that! and by that, 
through the priests' 'intention' are convej'-ed the virtue and purity of holiness to the 
married." What! and yet you denj- it to the priests ! You impose celibacy on them ! 
You deny them the holy efficacy of that sacrament, which, of all men living, they 
stand infinitely the most in need of! Do you mean the sacraments of penance* 
extreme unction, and all the other additional rites, which your priests facetiously call 
^'Sacraments.'' Why, so far from possessing sanctity, or conveying it, they are sheer 
impositions invented by despots and knaves I They are the offspring of priestcraft, 
invented after the sixth century : and have been too successfully employed to rob 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 187 

simple and credulous people of their property. For proof of this, may I beg your 
attention to my Letter VIII ? They are mere forgeries. And there is not one of your 
priests so utterly destitute of intellect, as not to know this. They have been false 
tokens by which money has been fraudulently gained : they are forged notes and 
checks by which property has been taken feloniously from the ignorant and unsus- 
pecting. And, now, I beg leave, fellow citizens, to put this question to everj' candid 
man in the community, whether the money obtained from people by these coun- 
terfeit sacraments, be not as wickedly obtained, as ever any money was obtained of 
our fellow citizens, by the forgers and counterfeiters that prowl on the community ? 
Is the " splended robbery" less criminal because it is perpetrated under the name and 
sanction of religion ? Is it less atrocious, and less ruinous to men, because the trans- 
action is the purchase and sale of men's spiritual liberty, and the souls of immortal 
beings, instead of the common articles of every day's business? Is it less damning 
before the eyes of pure Heaven, because, in the just and perfect liberty granted to 
religion, true and false, the laws of men reach not the ghostly felony ? 

I am, fellow citizens, yours truly &c. 

W. C. B. 



LETTER IV. 

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

" The hypocrite in mask ! — He was a man, 

Who stole the livery of the court of heaven 

To serve the devil in ! In virtues guise, 

Devoured the widow's bread ; 

In holy phrase transacted villanies 

That common sinners durst not meddle with !" 

Pollok, 

Fellow Citizens : — Your priesthood has laid claims to exclusive sanctity from 
this additional plea, that your head, the pope, is ^^ holiness itself:'''' and that, moreover, 
you had all the saints within your own church, to shed an exclusive glory o[ holiness 
(Ml you. 

In a former letter on the succession of the popes, I showed you fully, that the list 
of the popes, contained a majority of names of the most atrocious monsters! Men 
they were, that invented and perpetrated crimes which surpassed, so far as we know, 
any thing ever conceived at the council board of Pandemonium ! Men who led 
on the blood thirsty troops of Rome, and murdered sixty eight millions of human 
beings; not to mention the fearful destruction of immortal souls, caused by their 
deadly errors! Are these men ''holiness unto the Lord !" And, as i^ov the saints, 
their lives and adventures are those of bloody knaves, such as Loyola: and fanatics. 
macerating their bodies by endless acts of personal and social cruelty ; and suicides! 
Monstrous "miracle-mongers" like St. Dennis and /owr others, who took up their 
heads after they were cut off, and walked with them under their arms — or, like St. 
Patrick and others, sailing over seas on their cloaks, and on mill-stones. I refer for 
proof to Butler's Lives of the Saints, the Acta Sanctorum, and to your Bremary. 

The history of celibacy and inonachism in general, atlords the most impressive illus- 
tration of the priests' claims to sanctity. I shall merely allude to tliis at present. 



IflB 

Vtfil tbeline of pipe Gi^aijTIL. in. 1074^ die 
odier 

mod vicked maat, laj 
wife. Flmn 
finan die fniMburf: none wseve enfriovca not tnoee tmo toon an 

at an end in dbe 

A ,1.1.- -„ _^ —1, II 1 — -J 
aeneeoK wnoreoom ana 





liivdwtti 





ahrays iBedin a oeoaediiieiGft ftiHidHt ofiU 
eaoE «*ii0t mamed.'* Ihare besd o«r 
enee. ^To live in dneti'ij,*' is «» li^ 
ia die pnuls^ ^ocdbidarr. mental aod ho£ij 
f" if he be — yiiiiir eren dia^i^ he is 
eves ^ a commani^e and fetnkaiar! Etexj 
OMtmz and evezj demi^ who kneels at die eoa- 
crideBce ef all dns ! Tie Koman cadiibSic ImImiiji S cip iii 
Jfe JMcci Ins doMMifc li ated it by fecfe. See his ^ MrmamT juM^M£dnL>-i - 
il is a &ct, tree to a prov^b, and psodaiined pofaiitly bj die best of di'r K il-/:: 
hat fioBfttJ^da^ of Giesocj TIL, manKteneB and mmnwirifa ^ 
£oda^: ^iri ":! -- ">^^r)d, in erexj ici^QCt, Mke ihe inhalatn- 
ofdieiiiaiiL Ti fAstaite, andofBabj^n^anderdieO 

Yemts. 3inal, amid all their pagan pallii=: i 

totke-^f: - . 3-idpEiestt! It is inqioaabie fir l 

themilfici i^sof diesensen! Iiwasc^z 

€Bac«edt__; . "--r ^n: -•n;: se rn'r^t V^^- ^'^ 

publklT: i^i -_, ■'__:,„_:: „;-/._. 

Tark -;^ 

W_ -jis? Win i„: . ziiz — -: .las read the pafe? 



15.n; 



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infer: 
pries 



r^^rPopeL 
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AaELenac aU die Jesuits in the Wtt. -?- t ; 

1 TOSI V tf" \ 



Zl 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 189 

conseqtiences of these doctrines were horrible. Your own St. Bernard in the twelfth 
century, declares to the world, that "bishops and priests committed, in secret, such acts 
of turpitude as it would be even scandalous to express!" See Bern, in Con. Rhem, 
1728. And Agrippa, in Bayle, i. tells us of a Romish bishop who boasted on one 
occasion, of having in his diocese, eleven thousand priests who paid him, each, one 
guinea, annually, for a papal license to keep a concubine ! Clemangis, your own 
famous writer, and an honest reprover of your priests' vices, declares "the adultery, 
impiety, and obscenity of the priests to be beyond all description!" "They crowd 
into houses of ill fame," says he, " they spend their time in taverns, in eating, gam- 
bling, drinking, revelling, and dancing. These, sacerdotal sensualists fought, roared, 
rioted, and blasphemed God and the saints. And from the company of infamous 
women, they would pass to the altar, and the mass!" "To veil a woman in those 
days, or make a nun of her, was synonymous with prostituting her, — c'est la prosti- 
tuer." See Clemangis 26, Lenfan. i. 70, and Bruy, Tom. iii. p. 610, 611. And 
And Mezeray says of the Romish clergy before the Reformation, that they were nearly 
all fornicators and drunkards." " They held their offices in taverns, and spent their 
money in debaucheries." Mez. Hist, de France, Tom. iv. p. 490. Edgar, p. 511. 

The council of Valladolid say of the Spanish priests, that, "prodigal of character 
and salvation, the clergy led lives of enormity and profligacy in public concubinage." 
See Labb. vol. xv. p. 247. This declaration was renewed in the council of Toledo, 
in 1473. See Labb. vol. xix. p. 389, and Binii Concil. vol. viii. p. 957. — Gildas and 
Fordun have frankly unveiled the Romish priests of England. Even in " the sixth 
century the British priests," says he, "were a confraternity of the filthiest forni- 
cators !" See Gildas Epist. 23, 38. Oxford edit. 1691. And Fordun gives us king 
Edgar's description of , them in the close of the tenth century. "The clergy," said 
the king to their face, " are lascivious in dress, insolent in manner, and filthy in 
conversation. Their time they devote to revels, debauch-eries, and abominations; 
and their abodes are the haunts of harlots!" So much for his majesty's opinion 
of the Romish sanctity! See Fordun cap. 30, and Bruy ii. 219. Edgar p. 512. 

We have an extraordinary anecdote to illustrate the '■'holiness'^ of the Spanish 
priests in the hfteenth century. Their revolting impurities awakened the zeal of even 
popes Paul, Pius, and Gregory! These issued their bulls against the priestly " se- 
ducers." These bulls compelled the Inquisition to take the matter up : and the 
" holy inquisitors" summoned the attendance of all the frail fair ones who had been 
asijailed by these sons of Belial, and of Sodom. It made a terrible commotion. Maids 
and matrons, nobles and })easants, flocked in numbers incredible, to lodge informa- 
tion. You may form some idea of the extent of ^^ priestly holiiiess and purity, ^^ from 
the numbers of the fair informers at the single city of Seville. All the inquisitors 
and their officers, with twenty notaries, were employed for thirty days in taking down 
the depositions. The number crowding in, was not a whit abated ; they took thirty 
days more, three several times ! But there was no end to the business! The patience 
of even In([uisi(ors could not get through it. What was the result ? Just wliat miglit 
iiave been expected, when the inquiry on such a matter was committed to priests and 
bishops ! " He that was without the sin," wished to go on. But the bench of })riests, 
and bishops, and notaries, was deserted ! " The multitude of fair criminals," says 
my author, "and the jealousy of husbands, and above all, the overwhchiiing odium 
thrown upon auricular confession, and the popish priesthood, caused the " holy tri- 
bunal" to quash the prosecution, and destroy all the depositions!" Sec Gonsal. 1)55. 



190 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

Lorent. Hist, of the Inquis. p. 355. Limborch, Lib. iii. p. 17. and Edgar's Var. p^ 
513. 

There is one prominent attribute in popery, which marks itself in perfect opposition 
to Christianity. The latter, just in proportion to its extent and influence, promotes 
virtue and purity. But popery, just in proportion, to its extent, and the infliuence of 
the priesthood, promotes the most revolting impurity, and universal pollution ! Be- 
hold Rome, and Itcly, and Naples, this day ; and next to the&e, Spain and Portugal ! 
They are one vast temple of Astarte, and Venus ! The land of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah was inhabited by virtuous, decent, and orderly people, compared with the 
priests and nuns of those lands of popery personified! " The Lateran palace of the 
pope," says Labbeus, XI. p. 881. "which had been a sanctuary' of virtue, has been 
turned into a brothel." A council convicted one of the popes, namely, John XII. of 
fornication, murder, adultery, and incest! See Labb. XI. p. 882. Thuan i. 215. and 
Platina 132. 

The council of Lyons, in which was assembled the chief of the bishops and cardi- 
nals of the Romish church, converted that city into one great temple of pollution. 
M. Paris p. 792. has recorded the speech which Cardinal Hugo had the unblushing 
impudence to pronounce to the citizens after the council was dissolved. "Your 
city," said the '•'■ holy and chaste 'priest,'''' contained only three houses of ill-fame, 
when "the holy Synod" met here. Now there is only one! But, that one compre- 
hends the whole city, between the East gate, and the West gate !" See also Edgar 
p. 516. The "Holy council of Constance was attended," sa3's your own approved 
writers, "by fifteen hundred infamous females." See Labb. Vol. XVI. p. 1435. and 
Bruy IV. 39. " These trained bands," says Edgar, " were the companions of the 
infallible doctors, who made speeches in defence of popery, and burned the heretics 
JoHi«^ Huss, and Jerome of Prague. 

In the council of Basil, it was publicly avowed, and maintained by argument, by 
Carlery, your famous champion, that infamous houses were necessary, and proper, 
and a source of great revenue ! No man will venture to deny this quotation. Let 
him see the fact slated in Labbeus, Concil. Vol. XVII. pp. 98(). 988. Venice edit, of 
1728. See also Canisius, Thesaur. vol. IV. p. 457. Antwerp edit. 17£G. And every 
person acquainted with the elements of Romish history, knows that pope Paul III. 
who convoked the far-famed council of Trent, made no scruples of availing himself of 
the revenue that could be raised from licensed houses of infamy ! And as 45,000 of 
these infamous persons were receiving the protection of his "hol}^" apostolical licen- 
ce*;, his revenue from this source was very great! See McGavin's Glasgow Protest- 
ant, ch. 15. These licenses continue under "his Holiness' " care to this day! 

But it is not from this revolting sin alone that " Holy Mother" draws her revenues. 
She has traded, and does actually trade in all sins. In the far famed book called 
"The Taxes of the Apostolical Chancery," the prices of each class of sin are laid 
down. And let no Roman catholic priest, or layman expose his Jesuitism and igno- 
rance, by denying the existence of this book. Editions of it were sent out from Rome 
in 1514: from Cologn in 1515; at Paris in 1520; in 1545; and in 1G25. It is still 
in the libraries of the curious in Europe. It has been fully quoted by the " Morning 
Exercises," 4to. Edit, of 1675 London. And your own well known author Claud 
D'Espense in his comment on Titus, cap. 1. digr. 2. p. 479, makes this mention of it. 
"It is a wonder that this filthy index (the Taxa Concellaris) the pope's tax book, 
has not been suppressed : there is not a book more to their reproach : in it a price ia 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY; 191 

•^etto all buyers." And finally the Protestant princes at the Reformation, made p«b- 
iic mention of it, and inserted it in their statement of the causes why they rejected the 
council of Trent. 

From this authentic tax book, I shall present a specimen of the " holy priest's" 
traffic, and his prices of sin. In papal refinement of sin, the prices are fixed either 
for sins about to be designedly committed, — and this is called an Indulgence : or, they 
are paid for sins past,* — and that is called Absolution. 

Extracts from " Taxa Cancellaria Apostolic^,^^ 
OR His Holiness' tax book ; 
Being a list of sins pardoned, and their orthodox prices, in British money^ 

For a layman killing a layman, i 

For killing a father, mother, wife, or sister. 
For laying violent hands on a priest, without breaking the skin, 
For a priest to marry, no money can buy it, but to keep a concubine, 

from one guinea to 
To eat meat in Lent (as bad as the murder of a father or a mother,) 
For a Queen to adopt a child. 
To procure abortion. 

For taking a false oath in a criminal case, 
For robbing, or burning a house, 
For violating a maid. 
For incest, with sister or mother, 

Behold the imposing claims of sanctity, admirably demonstrated ! And we are 
not copying the doctrines and practices of the dark ages. Popery never changes 
TO the better! This is the immutable law of its nature ! And no well informed 
man, nor any who has travelled in popish countries, needs to be told this. Men who 
read not on this subject, and who think less, and those who have none of the genu- 
ine Roman catholic books, but who draw some superficial views, from some of their 
amiable and liberal catholic neighbors, and friends, are seen to labor under fatal mis- 
takes in this matter, They believe the Romish sect to be improved and reformed.' 
My humble prayer to God is, that He would open their eyes, and convince them of 
their error. I deckixe with deep solemnity ; and I appeal to ancient and modern his- 
tory, for evidence, — that the popery of Rome never has altered, never can alter for the 
better, without being destroyed and annihilated. The Romish church claims immuta- 
bility and infalUbihty. She appeals to God; and says she never has erred : never 
committed deadly sins : never has changed : never has reformed : nor has ever need- 
ed reformation ! 

Every man wlio has been in Italy, in Spain, in Portugal, in S^\dtzerland, in South 
America, and Mexico, has seen this inscription on the fronts of the various churches, 
even to this day, — " Plenary indulgences sold here,^^ at such and such prices. Again — 

"The bishop of sells indulgences here at" — such and such low prices. "An 

English gentleman," said my friend Dr. Avery, "was with me at Naples : and on 
reading the sign over the Indulgence shop, he went in and gravely purchased for a, 
small sum, an indulgence to do any sin for ane hundred duys/ 






7 6 


10 6 


10 6 


10 6 


10 6 


300 








7 6 





9 


12 





9 





7 6 



192 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

I would beg those men who think so favorably of modern popery, to read Br 

Moor's Tour in Europe ; and Graham's Rome in the 19th century. I refer to Rome 

as it is, a Tour in Italy, by Miss Morion : she finds and pronounces Italy a large 

nation of Atheists ! Also Lady Morgan's Rome in the 19th century. 

In South America, the morals of the priests are as bad as they were, and still are, 

in Spain. My friend Capt. M , has seen them "in their robes at the cock-pit, 

bull baiting, drinking, gambling, and involved in every possible licentiousness pub- 
licly and unbliishingly, as if there were no sin in any thing they could do."' And 
one most atrocious attribute of modern priestcraft is this ; — they sin with men and 
women, over the whole catalogue of the ten commandments; and then at the close 
of the crimes, they will solemnly pronounce, on the victims of their seductions, their 
priestly pardon and absolution for the sins then and there committed ! We may 
gravely question if even Satan himself, were he to walk forth in a visible form, in 
his robes of diabolical concealment, could invent more impious mockery of religion, 
or show a degree of atheism at all greater than this ! 

Such are the doctrines, discipline, and practice of the Jesuits, who now swarm 
over our land, and are opening colleges, and seminaries, and are offering to teach 
our sons and daughters. And, Protestants, will you,— can you bid them God speed ? 
Has, then, judgment fled from Protestants, and enlightened politicians, to brutish 
beasts ! Have men lost their reason ? "To veil a daughter, or put her into a nunnery," 
says even a Romish author, just quoted by us, — " is the same thing as to prostitute 
her !" And no father or mother can rise up from the perusal of the true, — alas ! too 
true narrative of "Lorette, the history of the daughter of a Canadian nun," — with- 
out a deep conviction of the modern, and ever unchanging infamies of priestcraft and 
popery! And what parent who wishes not to murder the peace, and the very soul 
of his child, could be tempted so far from parental duty, as to send his daughter for 
education, into the atrocious haunts of a nunnery ! WT^at ! can a father be so lost, as 
to place a sweet, innocent, unsuspecting daughter within the very fangs and grasp of 
the Jesuits ! Would to God I could open your eyes to view this matter as christian 
parents should view it. These European Jesuits, and their partisans, initiated into 
the deep and damning policy of Rome, preside over these seminaries, which spread 
traps for j-ou, and them. They carry over sea with them, all these doctrines, and 
immoral practices, which I have been imveiling. What ! can you barter the purity 
and innocence of your sweet and amiable daughters, and sons ? Wliat ! in the name 
of mercy, will you immolate the souls of these dear and immortal beings, whom God 
has given you ? Can you have a doubt remaining, after all the quotations made, 
touching the real policy and designs of popery, and of those men, on whom every 
government of Europe has uttered the ban of an universal curse and execration ? In 
the name of the God of tnith and mercy, let me lift my pleading voice to utter this 
my solemn warning to you, one and all ! I do earnestly declare unto j^ou, that it will 
be discovered by you, when it is too late, that those who place their daughters and 
sons in the haunts of such monsters of vice as the Jesuits are, — are far less ten- 
der hearted than the Hindoo who sacrificed her child to Gunga ! Or the wretch 
who placed the smiling babe in the red hot arms of the image of Moloch ! These 
destroy the body : those poison the soul with the venom of the worm of the second 
death ! 

So much for the claims of holiness, facetiously set up by the partisans of intriguing 
priests, and their church. Our laughter at these pretensions to holiness, is checked 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 193 

©oly by the bitter conviction forced on us, that under these unnatural claims, they 
conceal a de-adly conspiracy against virtue, morals, and religion ! 

I am, fellow citizens, yours respectfully, 

W. C. B. 



LETTER V. 

^O THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

" An Petrus Romae fuerit, sub judice lis est : 
Simonem Romae, nemo fiiisse negat !" 

" We are not sure that Peter ever sat 

In Rome : but Simon did, — we're sure of that !" 

Frov. of the IQth century. 

FelLow-Citizens, — It is one of our privileges, as citizens of this republic, and one 
of pre-eminent importance, that we, the people, claim and exercise the right of watch- 
ing our public servants. We inspect, and decide upon their public character, and 
official conduct with freedom, and independence. The constitution and legitimate 
laws are the rule and standard, by which we require them to regulate their conduct 
in public life. If they recede from, the spirit of these, and seek their own aggrandize- 
ment, and sacrifice the patriotic virtues, and the public good, on the altar of personal 
interests, and ambition, we consign them promptly, by our legal vote, to the obscurity 
of private life. This is our birthright; and it is unalienable. 

Novv^, vvfhat should we think of any political, or military officer, who would tell the 
people, they have no right to think for themselves on politics : no right to elect their 
pubhc servants : no right to dictate to them: but that they Vv^ho have climbed into 
office, it may be, by iniquitous means, have the sole prerogative of appointing men 
to all offices in the state ? In a word, that the servants of the people are above control, 
and accountable to none ; that they are every thing, that the people are nothing, and 
asthe dust under theirfeet ? No republican, — no honest man could endure this cant 
of the old world's despotism. Yet this, you know, is the identical despotism of every 
lloman catholic government of Europe. And its galling chains are rivetted, just in 
proportion to the power and influence of Catholicism pervading the solUs of a bru- 
talized people. Can you, fellow citizens, look without disgust and horror, upon this 
state of things ? Is your gratitude to this republic, so small that you would not dis- 
countenance, and put down the knaves, who would sap our free institutions, and 
bring back U])on you and upon us, this degradation, and despotism of European 
cathohcs ? 

But are politics so far superior to religion? Are the interests of time so far exalted 
above those of eternity ? Is it gallant and glorious to vindicate civil rights, while 
you allow the revolting ghostly despotism of the dark ages, still to crush your immor- 
tal souls in the dust ? Will you spurn from you the edicts of civil tyrants, and ki>» 
the hands of the wretched minions of Antichrist, who urge their claims to rule over 
your souls, bodies, and j)ropcrty, witli the iron mace of a llildcbrand ! Your ])riests 
not only allow of no liberty of conscience, but vmblushingly laugli it to scorn ! They 
tell yon, tiiat you have no right to read the lioly Bible : tliat you nnist not hear your 
Maker sjjcak, except through the priest's mutterings : that if you dare to think ou 

IS 



194 ROMAN CAtHOtIC CONTROVERST. 

religion, or even to speak to God, or even breathe a vow to him in any other tray,. 
than as the priest shall frame it, and offer it up /or money ^ you commit a mortal sin f 
Your bishop declares to priests and people that he is lord absolute over you all: that 
you have no right to choose your own spiritual guides : no right to choose your officia- 
ting ministers in the chapels, which you rear ! He dictates his own favorites to you : 
and tells you that you have no right from man or from God, to refuse. This you see 
outrageously practised every day in this free repubhc ; and land of clear christian 
light, and liberty ! We behold the darkness and horrors of the tenth century in free 
and enlightened America ! And of a Sabbath da}-, the priest, before he can ascend 
the desk to officiate, must throw himself down on his knees in the dust, and adore the 
bishop and kiss his hand, and worship the image of the absent pope, in the august 
person of the bishop who represents, in our republic, the intruding and usurped 
power of a foreign despot I This you see the devout and holy priest Levins do in St. 
Patrick's chapel, from sabbath to sabbath ! Is this the deportment of freemen ? Is 
this the Christian religion ? Is this becoming the dignity of reasonable men ? Is this 
not degrading, like the superstition of pagans ? Is it not unspeakably worse than the 
degradation of Turks ! How long, I beseech you. will you lick the ghostly tyrant's 
foot ? How long will noble and immortal beings be the crushed down vassals of a for- 
eign antichristian tyranny ? 

I have, in my preceding Letter, set before you, fellow citizens, the moTol character 
of your priesthood, from the humblest even to the pope. And their moral pollution, 
which we were constrained to unveil frankly, is not the result of human infirmity 
merely; or adventitious circumstances alone. It is necessarily engendered by the es- 
sential elements of popery. Auricular confession and priestly celibacy ever have 
covered, and ever will cover the Romish church, with a flood of pollution ; and 
will drown it in pealition. And, fellow citizens, has it never occurred to you, how 
minutely your priests have fulfilled, unintentionally, the prediction uttered from the 
Holv Ghost, in the Bible? See 1 Tim. iv. 3. The apostates from the truth were. not 
only to depart after "the doctrines of demons," — that is, — the worship of demons 
and departed souls; but were to be noted "6?/ their forbidding to marry.''' And, 
moreover, the great apostacy of Babylon was by inspiration, called '* the mother of 
harlots and abominations.'' In no other apostate christian church or sect, in all the 
world, is " marriage forbidden,'''' but by your priesthood and in your church ; and in 
no pagan land, know we of such a systematic course of deep and damning pollution, 
as in your church's monastaries, and nunneries, and at the confessional ! 

From a sketch of this revolting immorality, I pass, ^\-ith your leave, to exhibit the 
DOCTRINES taught in your priests' books, colleges, and seminaries. I thus pass from 
the streams which flow, like the waves of the second death, over your church, to un- 
veil the great fountains thereof. The main one is the infamous code of ethics taught 
])y your Jesuit priests. And I quote these to open, if possible, your eyes to the infamy 
of your spiritual guides ; and to awaken the slumbering consciences of those ill-in- 
formed Protestants, who send their children to Jesuit seminaries. And may the God 
of mercy grant that our solemn v/arnings may be the means of putting parents on 
their guard, to pluck those exposed young Protestants, as " brands from the devouring 
fires!" 

I would just observe that the order of Jesuits, after being put down, and deemed 
accursed by the Christian world; and expelled from every government in Europe, 
was revived by pope Pius VII. in 381 4. He took them under his special career 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 195 

placed them at the head of his seminaries and colleges ; as *' instruments most capa- 
ble, of forming youth to christian jpietij P' The plain meaning of which is this; 
that all other men had some remains of conscience ; but the troops of this sect were 
without conscience, and could, in cold blood, teach all that Rome could suggest ; and 
practice all that the prince of darkness could require ! And the pope after settling 
them as his chief apostles, closes his Bull with telling the world that "those, who 
should infringe upon this Bull; or by an audacious temerity oppose," these his dear 
and best beloved sons, would incur "the wrath not only of Almighty God, but of 
St. Peter !" These are the men who are, like the filthiest plague of Egypt, creep- 
ing up over the length and breadth of the land: and are threading their path\Yay into 
our schools, ana nurseries, and bed-chambers ! 

Their constitution is strictly monarc/iia/. A general or prince, is chosen over them 
for life : his pov/er is supreme, and universal : to him every member of the Society 
must submit his sentiments, and his will : to his injunctions he must listen, ''as if they 
were uttered hy Christ himself.'''' " No member can have any opinion of his own : 
'■'and the Jesuit Society has its prisons independent of the secular authority."' See 
Pascal's Prov. Letters, p. 15. N. York Edit. Hence those dungeons and cells, under 
their chapels, and college buildings, which any one may see, as their buildings go up : 
and which have been so accurately and publicly noticed by the late veteran Lorenzo 
Dow, in his appeal to the American public on this matter. 

The doctrines taught by these men, in the Romish books, and seminaries, are calcu- 
lated to give a deatli blow to civil liberty, as well as to our holy religion. In the opin- 
ion of all the eminent political men, of all the governments of Europe, their senti- 
ments, instilled into their pupils and devotees at confession, were more fatal to the 
liberties and rights of mankind, than even to religion. This is recorded in the pages 
of history. " Jesuitism is a familiar devil ivho enters the house, craivUng in the dust: 
crnd ends by cornmanding with lordly haughtiness /" This graphic delineation I cop}' 
from the late admirable work 07i Jesuitism, by Mons. De Pradt, the Roman catholic 
archbishop of Malines. I beg leave also to draw your attention to the Arret of the 
Parliament of France, issued in 1762, containing a statement of the reasons for the 
extirpation of Jesuitism. These with the pontifical reasons of the pope Ganganelli 
for his bold measure in dissolving the society, in 1772, exhibit in their true light, this 
band of conspirators against our civil and religious institutions, — the curse of our land, 
as they have been the scourge of all Europe ! 

The first; tenet of their creed exalts the pope to a monarchy, " unlimited by demo- 
cracy, or by aristocracy." This is civil and spiritual : he claims and receives homage 
as much as a civil prince, as a spiritual. Dr. Pise, and also all our New-York 
priests have had the unblushing hardihood to deny that they own the pope, or do him 
homage, as a temporal prince !" With men so reckless of truth, and who, availing 
themselves of tlie Jesuit doctrine of mental reservation, say one thing, and believe 
another, it were needless to reason on this point ; and folly to listen to what they say. 
They know as accurately as any well read Protestant docs, that tlie temiwral and 
spiritual claims of the pope, never were separated for the benefit of American Ro- 
man cathoHcs. They know that these claims never can be separated. It is a matter 
of recorded fact, that the pope claims power over the bodies, and souls of all men, 
Protestants, as well as catholics; and over all Protestant, and non-Protestant govern- 
ments ! The Protestant government of England, and of the United States, are only 
rebels, who arc to be regained back by the conversion oi' Jesuits, or by force of arms 



^96 ROMA!? CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

in due time ! In the solemn belief of every pope, and every tree Roman catfaotlc^ 
the Protestant kings of Holland, and England have no more risrht to reign than had 
the excommunicated Harry VIII.. and Queen Elizabeth ! In the solemn behef of 
the pope and every Jesuit, our protestant and venerable chief ?»Iagistraie. has no 
more right to bear the reins of government, than Harr\- VHI. or Queen Elizabetli 
had in England! The fact is. every protestant prince, ever\- protestant President, 
subject, aLd citizen, are annually excommunicated at Rome, and in these United 
States. And I assert in the face of the most imblushing Jesuit, and before the Amer- 
ican community, that it is a matter of the most notorious e\-idence, that on every 
Thursday of passion week, annually, according to the Bull. In ccma Domini, our 
protestant President, and all our protestant magistrates, governors, and everv pro- 
testant member of our city corporation, are publicly, formally, and solemnlv excom- 
municated, cursed, and sent to hell and perdition, in ever\- Romish chapel in the 
Inited States I But, then, it is pronounced in Latin, and not generallv known. 
Every priest takes " an oath on the evangels, and the cross" to do this. And if there 
be one of them that can have the assurance to deny that he does this, then he is hy 
his own confession, a perjured k^^aveI 1 shall afterwards, give the priest*s oatli, 
and this Bull of •' universal ban, and damnation," pronounced by the foreign tyrant, 
and his charitable, holy, and christian serrcnfs. the Romish priests, on all of iis. — our 
President, governors, and the whole magistracy, and the Protestant people of th^e 
I'nited States- 

I am. vours trulv. ^c. 

W. C. B. 



LETTEE VI 

TO TEE 3IE:-IEEE.? OF THE BO^IAX CATHOLIC CEURCH. 

•' The scarlet colored whore I whose priests are lords. 

Whose cofiers held the gold of ever}" land : 

Who held a cup of all poliutious full, 

And with a double bom the people pushed .'" 

Feleow Citize>s: — If you possess truly republican, and tndy religious views 
and feelings, you will consider that man yoiur best friend and benefactor, who labors 
to tmdermine the power of priestcraft, and to aid in achieving your liberty. Yes, 
fellow citizens, you will thank me for raising my warning voice, and assming you 
that you know not what deadly vipers you are warming and cherishing in your 
unsuspecting bosom ! What! do you believe ^hst a Jesuit yiiest can deem himself 
botmd to render allegiance and obedience to magistraies who are anatheicatized by 
his "Lord God on earth," the pope ? Can any citizen be so weak, or so ignorant of 
human nature, as to believe that a Jesuit priest will teach his pupils, or his devotees at 
the confessional, to own a government made up of protestants, who are cursed, and 
excommimicated by his spiritual dictator, the pope ? To be sure they will not con- 
fess this : they would not be Jesuits if they admitted it. They have the same pro- 
fotmd oath of secrecy as free masons had. They are to keep the secret until they 
gain the ascendency. I call on every magistrate of the land, and every protestant 
fellow citizen, to read the Secreta yionita. or Secret Instructions of the Jesuits 
(Princeton Edition of 1631.) We are indebted,, for this - terrible book" of Jesuits' 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY, 197 

secrets, to' the parliament of Paris. They passed the act to aboUsh the Jesuits, in 
secrecy; and the execution came on the Jesuit college like a thunder stroke. Their 
palace was surrounded by troops, and their papers and books, and these " Secret In- 
structions^^ were seized before they had heard that the parliament had taken up their 
cause ! 

Now hear their own words by which they teach their pupils in the United States 
the absolute supremacy of the foreign despot, the pope. "The pope, speaking from 
his chair, is exempt from all ignorance, error, and mistake." See Dupin Disserta- 
tions, p. 333: Bellarmine, iv. 1, 15, and v. 9. And Labb. vol. xiv. p. 1428. Edgar 
p. 157. They are in the habit of calling the pope " Our Lord God," — not merely a 
'■^god,''^ as magistrates are sometimes called: but "Our Lord God." And even on 
their own explanation, they call him " a god," as a magistrate, — here is a public 
admission that they own that foreign ruler in his temporal and civil power. And 
hence no Roman catholic, strictly so called, can take the oath of allegiance to our 
constitution and government, without mental reservation, or falsehood, and 'perjury ! 
1 appeal to our professional men of every denomination. 

I shall give only one quotation farther. The following homage to the pope, was 
expressed by an archbishop, in the council of the Lateran, in the hearing and 
presence of pope Leo X. And hence it has the sanction of a pope, and a council ; and 
it is, in the belief of every true Roman catholic, of equal authority with the holy 
Bible ! The homage was this : — " The pope has power, supra omnes potestates tarn 
cceli, quam terra, — above all the powers of heaven, as well as of earth!" Nay he 
professes to do what God himself does not, — and cannot do- In " the mass" he and 
jhiis priesthood profess to create their Creator ! Out of a wafer, they make God ! 
Now, the Most High never created, never could create himself! I And thus the 
instructions taught in our Jesuit seminaries, are an unparallelled compound of cruel 
ghostly despotism, and blasphemy! Can the most resolute infidel in all the land, 
can the christian magistrate, or a christian citizen be persuaded to hazard his chil- 
dren in the seminaries, and under the instruction of such teachers! Whosoever he be 
that does this, with his eyes open to what every one cannot but see, must be pro- 
nounced an enemy to God, a traitor to his country, and the destroyer of his children's 
innocence, and their immortal souls ! 

I. shall now present you with a specimen of the moral doctrines of your priests. 
These correspond, in all points, to their theological tenets, ^neas Silvius, aftetr 
wards pope Pius ii. says in his Epist. 26: " Islihil est quod, Sfc. There is nothing 
which the Rom.an court does not give for money: "it sells the imposition of hands, '• 
(the ordination of priests. Alas ! — then, for the succession !) "it sells the gifts of the 
Holy Ghost, and the pardon of sins is not given to any but such as are well-monied !" 
And, well said a poet of their own, namely, Mantuan, Lib. 3. "All things are saleable 
at Rome,— temples, priests, altars, prayers, heaven, — yea God himself," in the mass, 
to wit, — " are all for sale !" And lience the standing miracle at Rome which jirjestly 
modesty strangely forgets to enumerate in the "miracles of the saints." By the sale 
of her trifles such as the sight of relics, and her prayers, and her indulge?icics, and the 
pardons, she possesses the power of converting lead and feathers into solid gold! The 
greatest, and, in faci, the only unpardonable sin in the Roman church is povcrti/ 1 if 
you have only money you can buy the beat seat in heaven, and the snuggest joys of 
all paradise ! If you have no money, you can get nothing, not even a drop of wafer 
to cool the tongue ! And what is really inhuman, — if the priest knows your povertv, 

la* 



198 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

he has not the bowels of compassion enough to pray you out of purgatory ; although 
by his own testimony, it would cost him only a single word of his mouth ! ! This is 
the first article in the code of his ethics. The most horridly immoral thing is jpoverty! 
" The poor cannot be comforted !" 

"As the Jesuit's morality is entirely pagan," says Pascal. Letter V., "nature is a 
sufficient guide to them." And nature does guide them with a vengeance! The 
force of this doctrine of probable opinion is wonderful. If a man be in a dilemma 
about dut}^ : this, for instance, appears vice ; that, again, is virtve : or thi^, at another 
time, seems virtue, that, a vice. To relieve him, he requires no more than "the 
PROBABLE opinion" of somc ouc. And to comfort him, the opinion of even one 
grave doctor, "will make an opinion probable! And be it ever so wrong and im- 
moral, if he onl}'- follow the probable opinion, it is saintly purity, it is true virtue ! 
And what is still more accommodating — should two grave doctors differ on the point, 
and each of them declare an opinion; why, then, each of "the grave doctors" makes 
his opinion probable : so that you have a probable opinion on lioth sides. And in that 
case, the way is clear, whatever law or gospel say. Take either side you please, 
just as it suits your own views, and interest. That which you do is virtuous, and alto- 
gether right! Hence the old Jesuit proverb ; — Saepe premente Deo, fert Deus alter 
opem! " If one god press hard on us, another god brings us aid!" That is to say, 
both sides, namely, the right, and the wrong are both right, — just as our interest 
requires it. See Pascal, Prov. Lett. V. And what is very marvellous in ethics, — 
if a person following a probable opinion, commits an enormous sin, the priest must 
absolve him, even though the priest holds an opinion utterly the reverse. And what 
is more still, — if the priest refuses this boon, he is himself guilty of a mortal sin ! 
this is taught by Saurez, Tom. iv. dist. 32. sect, 5, also by Vasi[uez, Disput. 62, cap. 
7. and by Sanchez, N. 29. Pascal, Lett. V. p. 79. For instance, one doctor says, 
"thou shalt not murder in an}- case." Another grave Jesuit says, "it is just and 
useful to take off a man, like Henry IV. of France." The assassin follows this 
''''probable opinion,'" and does murder him. And the Jesuit priest is bound, under 
pain of a "mortal sin" to grant absolution to the assassin,, and free pardon, and an 
entrance into heaven: while he is conscious that he deserves the pains of hell, and is 
actually plunging into it ! ! 

Passing by others, I shall quote the very accommodating principle of -''directing the 
intention.''^ By this simple expedient, the Jesuit school can convert an immoral , and 
even an atrocious deed, into what is commendable. For instance, a man may fight a 
duel, and kill a man; providing he direct his intention timply to retrieve his honor. 
He fights not with the intention to kill, but to do a service to himself. In like man- 
ner, a man may kill a A\dtness whose testimony may ruin him. To take away the 
immorality of this action, he has only to intendhis own good, and not intend to murder 
even lehile he kills ! This has been taught by Reginaldus, in Praxi, v. 21, sect. 62, 
by Lessius De Just. Lib. ii. cap. 9, by Escobar, Tr. 5, Ex. See many more revolt- 
ing instances in Pascal, Lett. VII. 

I shall close with a few quotations illustrating other branches of practical morality. 
"A man," says one of your most respectable moralists, "who makes a contract of mar- 
riage, is dispensed, by any motive, from accomplishing his promise." Sanchez Oper. 
Mor. Decal. pars. 2, Lit. 3. Again, — "A man may begin his testimony with, / 
swear ; .he Can add this mental restriction, to day, in a whisper he may repeat, ] say ; 
"and then resume his former tone, — / did not do itT^ See Filiucius, Quest. Mor. vol. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 199 

ii. No. 328. Again, " no witness is bound to declare the truth, before a lawful judge 
if his deposition will injure him, or his posterity." Taberna vol. ii. cap. 31, p. 288. 
"A priest may equivocate before a secular judge; — because such a judge is not a 
lawful competent authority to receive the testimony of an ecclesiastic /" See Tambur. 
Lib. 3, p. 27. Again, " the rebellion of Roman prisets is not treason, because they are 
not subject to the civil government. ^^ See Fmman. Sa, Aphor. p. 41. And, fellow 
ciUzens, hear the words of the Romish favorite Bellarmine, De Rom. Pon. in Lib. v» 
cap. 6, p. 1094. "The spiritual power must rule the temporal by all sort of means, 
and all expedients, when necessary. Christians,^^ that means with them R. Catholics^ 
" should not tolerate a heretic kingP' Now, every Jesuit priest in the land, believe* 
and acts on this, when he has the power. But all the members of our government 
do, by the pope's decision, consist of heretics. Hence no Jesuit, and none of his 
devotess would tolerate our government for one day, if they had the power ! 

Again, "a man condemned by the pope maybe killed wherever he is found. '^ See 
La Croix, vol. i. p. 594. Again : "it is not a mortal sin to steal that from a man 
which he would have given, if asked for it. It is not theft to take any thing from a 
father, or a husband, if the value be not considerable." See Emmanuel Sa, Apor, 
under the woid furtum, theft. Once more, "a child who serves his father, may 
secretly purloin as much as his father would have given a stranger for his compen- 
sation." See this in Escobar, Mor. Theol. vol. iv. lib. 34, p. 348. And again, — 
" Servants may secretly steal from their masters as much as they judge their labor 
is worth, more than the wages they receive." See this in Cardenas, Crisis, Theol. 
Diss. 23, cap. 2, p. 474. And Ludovicus Molina thus teaches, that if "■ a man or 
woman servant (hired persons) have not a sufficient support, or what is usual and 
necessary, he or she may secretly take, and use out of their master's goods, what is fit : 
they are not to be blamed for doing so, — providing they first asked him for leave so to 
do, and he refuse it." See Mol. De Just, et Jure : Tom. u- p. 1150, Ment Edit, of 
1614. 

Thus it is manifest from their approved books lying open to the world, that the 
Roman catholic priesthood are the grand depository of principles bearing a deadly 
hostility to the christian religion, and to our free institutions. And I renew my appeal 
to the great American family, that the Protestant, who countenances these principles, 
or a^ids them with his money ; or sends his children to their seminaries to imbibe these 
tenets, is an enemy to God, a traitor to our republic, and the destroyer of the peace and 
happiness of his children/ 

I am, most respectfully, yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



200 EOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

LETTER VII. 

TO THE MEMBER? OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

On the Unity of the Romish Church. 

" The other shape, 
If shape it might be called, that shape had none ^ 

Distinguished in member, joint, or limb ; 
Or substance might be called that shadow seemed : 
For each seemed either." — Milton. 

Fellow Citizens : — I trust I have in my last two letters put to rest, the claims face- 
tiously made by the "Roman catholic priesthood to sanctity. All the personal and 
sacerdotal holiness, to which they can lay any^ honest claims, lies wholly in their mot- 
ley consecrated gannents, of duly orthodox shape, and holy cut! This easy and 
accommodating holiness is readily put off; and most conveniently put on, during "a 
holy fair," and '• a solemn gala da}- :" while in the inner man, they are stouthearted 
deists, with few^ exceptions, and mockers of the holy scriptures : and in morals, as we 
have shown, the most consimimate rakes, and polluted pests of civil society ! I rest 
my proof wdth the American community : I appeal to the histoiy, and the voice of 
Europe, South America, and Mexico, for the fuller evidence of this disgrace, and foul 
blot on hmiian nature I I come now to speak of the enitt of tlie Romish church. 

Were this unity which the priests proudly boast of, a mere harmless extravagance, 
like the lofty lilies of eastern princes, we should pass it in silence. But it is constituted 
a mark of their being the one only true church. And all the churches of Christ, on 
account of the supposed want of it, are doomed to be heretics, not one solitary soul 
of whom, as your priests daily teach 30U, can possibly be saved. Hence, in the Ro- 
mish church this is a dangerous and bloody dogma. It eats out the vitals of broth- 
erly love and christian charity. It is the parent and nurse of bigotry, discord, and 
every^ ilUberal feeling. This is too manifest in every communii}' vrhere popery has 
any influence. Ycur priests take the lead. When these charitalh, and chaste exclu- 
sives walk our streets, or look into a Protestant assembly, they cross themgelves, and 
whisper out, — "These are odious heretics! These men, women, and children, will 
all be damned ! As soon as they die, they will all be in perdition !'' 

And this proceeds not from " constitutional malignity,'' or mere morbid misanthropy. 
It is engendered by the elemental doctrines of popery, in the heart of even females* 
and those who are naturally delicate, and humane. '• You ought to be executed for 
propagating these tenets, and opposing Holy Mother."' — said a young lady, in this 
city, only two 3-ears an apostate from a presb\-terian church, — only two years a 
papist ! 

This is the very spirit engendered by the doctrines of Roman cathohcism. It is 
avowedly taught by your ethic writers. Here are the avowed declarations. " Those 
whom our lord the pope has condemned mat be laweullt killed, any where !" 
See La Croix, Tom. i. p. 294., and Secreta Monita, p. 114. Princeton edition. 

This is the law and theory : the practical result is exhibited in the Inquisition, in 
the Parisian, and Irish, and Waldensian massacres ! And every one w^ll admit that 
the executions, and the laws of popery are true, to the life, to each other ! 

I have to add that m the popish charity, a heretic m faith, is \-ie"t\ed precisely in 
the same light as a common murderer f 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 201 

Therefore, it is the decided opiuion of all Roman priests, that it is as lawful to kill 
heretics, as it is to kill murderers ; nay that it is as necessary, and as dutiful to kill the 
first, as to kill the last ! Hence, when the church of God has quoted that text, in the 
Revelation, as descriptive of popish persecutions, and in proof that Rome was the 
Babylon '•'-that was drunk ivith the blood of the saints; — Holy Mother replies in the 
w^ordsof the Rhemish Annotations on Rev. xvii. 6., "Their blood is not called the 
blood of saints, no more than the blood of thieves, man-killers, and other malefac- 
tors,- for the shedding of which, by order of justice, no commonwealth shall answer."^ 
Such a dangerous tenet must not, therefore, pass tmnoticed. 

The iiomish priests should be the last men, in the world, to prefer claims to unity, 
in any sense. There is, in fact, no unity in the priests' church. Will you, I pray 
you, follow me in the examination of this point. 

I. The christian world has been against you, and you have been against the chris- 
tian world. You have been Ishmaelites on the face of the earth. There have been 
churches who, from primitive times, have stood out, not only unconnected with you, 
but iramoveably opposed to your whole S3'stem. These have testified against 3-our 
most obnoxious abominations ; and, a& is evident from the venerable monuments of 
their history, still existing, they hold in their confessions and creeds, the great leading 
principles of modern Protestants. European Christendom has been the grand theatre 
of the Waldenaian church. These christians were immensely numerous ; as is evi- 
dent from the prodigious number of your church's m.urderous armie.s deemed requi- 
site to be sent out against them. These people were called by different names, by 
your persecuting forefathers; but the three great divisions of them were,-;— the ?r«/- 
denses, the Albigenses, and the Wickliffites. These had one common faith : they 
unanimously rejected images, saint worship, the mass, purgatory, and all the essen- 
tial tenets of Romanism. And in all the essential doctrines of Christ, they were at 
one with the reformed churches. See Jones' Church Hist. 2 vols. N. York edition. 
Reinerus, the Dominican writer, says in cap. 4. " that these were the most ancient 
heresy; and that they existed from the days of Silvester; or, others say, from the 
days of the apostles." Holding the apostolic doctrines, they dated their origin, as 
three Romish writers admit, " and their defection from the Romish communion, from 
the time of pope Silvester ; and they regard Leo, of the times of the emperor Constantine, 
as their founder." Romanism, as Edgar observes, at this time gradually ceased to be 
Christianity; and these inhabitants of thevallies, left the antichristian communion of 
Rome. Your church, and the w^orld, have changed around this devout christian so- 
ciety; while its principles and practices, through all tiic vicissitudes of time, live im- 
mutably the same. " The Waldensian church, though despised by the Roman hier- 
archy, illumined, in this manner, the dark ages; aiid appears, in a more enlightened 
period, the clearest drop in the ocean of truth ; and shines the brightest constellation 
in the firmament of holiness ; and sparkles the briglitest gem in the diadem of our 
Immanuel : and blooms the fairest flower in the garden of God !" See Edgar's Vnr. 

Turn now, with me, to the East. The Roman catholic church was boldly rcjocteii 
by the Greek church, an immense body of christians, in the isles, in Turkey, in Rus- 
sia, in Europe, and in Asia. The Romish church Avas as decidedly rejected by the 
Ncstorians; by the Jacobins, or the churches planted by Jann^s; by the churches of 
Armenia; and by the Syriac churches. To form some idea of the extent of the 
Greek church, let me state, that in the eleventh ccnturv, the patriarch of Coustanl'r- 



20'2 KOMA>* CATHOLIC CONTKOVilRSt. 

nople governed 65 metropolitans ; and 600 bishops ; and each bishop had thousands of 
priests under himJ^See TLomas<='n, Dscipline de L'EgUse, Pan 4. 2. 17. And 
Allatius vol. I. )<A. The Greeks, I must observe, are the farthest perhaps from the 
I)urity of the Reformed churches, for this painful reason, that they unhappily remain- 
ed the longest in connection with the corrupt church of Rome I But it is a matter of 
recorded history, that that immensely numerous body of Christians, has, as a church, 
renounced papal usurpations, corruptions, and tyranny. And they have formally and 
regularly excommunicated the Roman catholic church ; and denounced her with 
solemnity as no longer a church of Christ. See Simon, cap. i. and Canisius vol. IV. 
p. 493. And^-et your priests, in the most ludicrous manner, cease not to prate about 
UNITY and catholicity! 

Moreover, the Armenian church, an iin-.nensel}' extended body, spread over Armenia, 
i*ersia, India, Turkey, — have opposed, and also anathematised the Romish church. 
Then there is the Syrian church, who have in ancient times denoimced you as an 
■apostate i:ect, and no more a true church. And this primitive apostolical people have 
"existed in the heart of India, to this day, as it appears from their remains which were 
visited by the late Dr. Buchanan. See his Star in the East. And, in a word, the 
European, the Asiatic, and the African churches, who have thus solemnly dissented 
from the Roman catholic church, have been at least, four times more numerous than 
the members of the Roman church, even before the Reformation, when she was in 
all her glory." And I invite all the Jesuits in the United States to gainsay this by 
anj- one historical document. Yes ! it is a fact, clearly established by history, of 
-which the priests take infinite i)aius to keep you all perfectly ignorant, that poper\> 
instead of unity and catholicity which are its vain and empty boasts, was never 
embraced, — never countenanced by more than one fifth part of Christendom. Yes I 
every man well read in chiu-ch history which the priests carefully conceal from you, 
fellow Citizeas, does know assuredly that all along from apostolic times, there were 
Jour christians or dissentients to* everyone Roman catholic. 

The countless thousands, and hundreds of thousands of the Waldenses, and the 
immense multitude in the Oriental aud African churches, — even amid their painful 
" divisions about minor matters of words and ceremonies," did all oppose with firm- 
ness and ynaniniity, the cruel tyranny, and revolting corruptions of the Roman 
<;atholic church." Yes I four to one, of all these were opposed "to the sons of error, 
superstition, and popery," See our appendix, No. i. And yet your priests boast with 
unparallelled assurance of their imity and universality I Behold, fellow citizens, 
how these French, Spanish, and Roman Jesuits insult the American cop-munity, as if 
you were ignorant of the first elements of European and popish history ! They walk 
fortliin the midst of us, and babble o{ unity and universality, as if we were enveloped 
in the popish darkness of the tenth century. They enjoy our liberties, they walk forth 
in our social intercourse, they smile in our faces, — and gravely tell us.^"— " Ye are 
all heretics! Ye are as bad as murderers! We have, however, this consolation 
over you, that though we want the power to justify you at Ihe stake, and the 
gibbet, — ye will all soon be doomed." 

H. Your priests boast of unity audharmony among yourselves. This is quite facet 
tious, and if you intend it for a sally of wit, why, it is tolerable for monks and priests. 
But I shall suppose that you are serious, and gravely refute your claims. Need I 
remind you of the fatal schisjns in your church, with which we refreshed your 
jnenaory in a former letter ? "Where was your unity in those days when ttco ancj 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 



20^ 



thret popes, with their bloody partisans, rent Holy Mother's family into agitated par- 
ties ? Must I ^emind you of the bloody wars, *which impious and atrocious popes 
excited, to accomplish the end proposed by their rebellions againot their lawful 
sovereigns, the emperors? Need you be reminded of the civil wars which raged 
during the reign of the emperor Leo between those who opposed images, and "the 
furious tribe of image worshippers ? Need I tell you how the popes Gregory I. 
and II. were the authors, and ringleaders of these civil commotions, and insurrections 
in Italy, in their excessive zeal in behalf of image worship ? See Mosheim ii. cent. 
8, part. 2, ch. 3. Has not the whole world heard of pope Zachary who excited 
Pepin to rebel against his sovereign, the king of France, and depose him, and reign 
by violence, in his stead ? And of pope Stephen whose restless ambition stirred up 
the French king to carry on war, and shed the blood of the Lombards, to extend his 
papal dominions ? Who has not shuddered at his inhuman destruction of the tens of 
thousands of his own good catholics, as this priest fought to wrest property and 
dominion from the emperor? See the pages of your own writer, Platina, in the life 
of pope Stephen, ii. ; and Stillingf. p. 367. Trace, I beseech you, the progress of the 
papal throne, to power and sacerdotal glory. That papal throne was founded in out- 
rage and rebellion against governments : it was built on the ruin and lives of millions ; 
and cemented in human blood ! "So great was the devastation and blood shed caused 
by popish unity and popish harmony, that, as two of your writers relate, — " the country 
about Rome suffered more, about that time, than in the invasions of Northern bar- 
barians, for 344 years before !" See Platina, in Life ( 1 Stephen II. ; and Blondus, 
Decad. 2, Lib i. Stilling, p. 369. Need I remind you, moreover, of the infamous 
treachery of pope Gregory IV. who undertook a journey into France, professedly 
with a view of composing differences between the emperor and his two sons, but who 
had no other object, as the result fully proved, than to excite the sons into an open 
breach, and war with their own father? x\nd thus, the head of unity kindled the 
flames of discord which were not quenched but by the blood of thousands. " Pope 
Gregory IV.," — says Hincmar the Roman catliolic bishop of Rheims, — " came into 
France : and there was no peace from that day, in the country." Hincmar, Epist. 
p. 577, Stilling, p. 371. Need we, also, rehearse the doings of pope Gregory VII., 
who has been well named, ''the hell-brand?'' This pious head of the Roman 
catholic unity, excited continual wars in Germany, and (be adjacent kingdoms. The 
emperor, Henry IV., fought in his time, no less than sixty-two pitched battles, (that 
is, fen more than Julius Caesar fought,) and all of them at the instigation of the pope, 
in one way, or another. See the Chron. of Ursperg. p. 226, and the history of that 
period : and Stilling, p. 372. Need I recite the horrid tumults which that pope 
caused by his enforcing the laws of celibacy upon the priests ? Or the public distrac- 
tion caused by his inhuman treatment of Henry IV., notwithstanding all his ser- 
vices? His making that poltroon prince stand at his gate, three days, clad in sack- 
cloth, bare headed, and bare footed in winter, before he deigned to give him an audi- 
ence? Was this characteristic of the head o( unity and harmony 1 If you have any 
doubts on the matter, I shall recivg in evidence llie only good thing whicli this 
scourge of mankind during all his lifetime, cither did or said. I allude to his dyinff 
words, as recorded by Math. Paris. His. Anglic, A. D. 1087. Having called one oi' 
his friends to him, he confessed that "ii ivajf through the instigation of the' devil that 
he had made so great a disturbance in the christian world /" This is an instructivw 
lesson of a pope, on unity ! 



804 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

In one word, it is clearly manifest to every reader of history, that in all the endless 
train of tumults, insurrections, and wars which have convulsed Europe, and drenched 
her in seas of blood, for about the last eleven hundred years, the pope and the 
Romish prelates have been the grand agitators, and prime causes! And yet the 
priests boast of unity and harmony, as an exclusive mark of their being the true church ! 

I am, fellow citizens, yours &c. 
W. C. B 



LETTER VIII. 

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

"About her round, 



A crj'of hell-liounds, never ceasing, barked, 

With wide Cerberean mouths, full loud, and rung 

A hideous peal!" Milton. 

Fellow Citizens: — We go on with the proof that the unity of the priests' 
church is discord. 

For, — III. The various orders and rules of the monks exhibit a house divided 
against itself. These Orders are so many regiments in the pope's army, who act in 
concert only against the common enemy. Each of them has its ownesprit du corps; 
and has, from time to time, caused the fiercest contests and tumults on various parti- 
zan questions. There is 1st the Benedictines with their rules ; and dressed in the 
characteristic solemn black, from the color oiihe favorite raven, which attended Bene- 
dict in his solitude, and which as a sensible and judicious creature, the holy monk 
appropriately called his " brother ;" and was, in fact, as Dr. Geddes, vol. iii. 367, 
recites out of the writings of the order, " hisjirst brother in the solitude.'" Then 2d , 
there are the monks of Cluny, founded by the wild fanatic St. Odo, who did not con- 
ceal that he was infested b}- flocks of mischievous foxes wherever we went ; no man 
could tell where they came from, until a humane wolf volimteered most devoutly and 
obligingly, to be his guard by day and night ! Then 3d, there are the Cameldunians, 
whose clothing is white, because the ghost of St. Apollinar walked out, in clothing 
of pure light, from below the altar, and appeared to their founder. The 4th order is 
that of the Gilhertines, named after their founder, who was moved to institute the 
order from the presence of a crucifix, gravely and sensibly nodding its head at him, 
as do the statues of our modern 3IandaTines ! The 5th order is the Carthusians ; — 
" an inhuman order." as Dr. Geddes justly styles them, from their crucifying every 
fine feeling, and social principle of human nature ; a thing our priests are not guilty 
of, as we have seen I The 6th is the Cistertians, which differs as much from that of 
the Carthusians, as that did from all its preceding brothers! This order is clothed in 
white, because the mother of the founder was favored with a marvellous and appro- 
priate dream, that she was about to give birth to a ichite dog! Then there are the 
three orders of the Celestines : the Williamites ; and the Silvesteniites. 

Besides these, are the Canons Regular : and the fourteendiff'erent orders of St. Au- 
gustine. Then we may enumerate the Dominican, and other Mendicant orders, w^hich 
differ widely from the monkish orders : and there are the strong army of the Francis- 
cans ; and to crown the whole, the authors of all mischief, the Jesuit's order. Each 
of these has a particular resident virtue and eflficacy ; and they gravely tell us that it 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 205 

lies in some holier article of their holy dress. For instance, the Dominican's virtue 
lies in their white scapular: that of the Monks hes in their belts: that of the Francis- 
tans in their sleeve. And it is proper for us all to knovv^ this, that when the golden 
dreams of the pope, and his monks, are realized, and when they have conquered this 
fair republic, and established these orders : and when they will swarm on our streets, 
in their holy processions, " as plenty as blackberries," — we may carefully put our- 
selves on our good manners ; and so, by the orthodox Roman way of thinking, and 
worshipping God by human proxy, save our lives. We must, for instance, swear in 
these days, by the Dominican's white scapular; salute the monk by kissing his belt; 
and the Franciscan by kissing his holy sleeve, as we kneel in the dust, for the honor 
of having his blessing, or the saintly honor of laying the foundation stone of a vile 
nunnery, or of worshipping and lauding to heaven the priest's favorite nieces^ under 
the name of sisters of Love ! All this they do, in popish lands ! 

Between these diifferent orders, and the bishops, and the parochial clergy, there 
have been perpetual wranglings in all Roman catholic countries. And the pope 
slirev/dly avails himself, of their influence mutually. When the bishops are refrac- 
tory, he judiciously foments quarrels by the monks ; when the latter become turbu- 
lent, he throws in his papal sword to make the bishops' scale weigh down ! Besides, 
there have been as deadly feuds between these orders, as ever there have been among 
Highland clans, and Border reivers! The Jesuits cherish violent feuds against the 
JTansenisto ; the Dominicans maintain bloody strifes with the Franciscans, and the 
Scotists Vv'ith the Thomists ! And all these orders know club logic, infinitely better 
than arguments of grace ! 

In fact, the Romish church, in its interior, has been like a boiling caldron, over a 
fiercely burning fire ! The agitated scalding waves now thrown up one thing, and 
now another. There is no rest, no peace to priest, to pope, or to prelate ! And yet 
these imn glory insultingly over the Christian world, in their unity and harmony ; and 
hold this up as the divine mark of their possessing in fee simple, the only true church ! ! 

IV. There is no unity between the doctrines, and rites of the Roman catholic 
church ; and those of the holy Scriptures, and the Fathers. Follow me in the proof 
of this. First, the papal supremacy \s the corner stone of your fabric, if this falls, the 
whole system falls, and the trodden down people regain their rights and liberty. 

Now there is no evidence in the Bible, or in sound tradition, (hat Peter had any 
supremacy from Christ. On the contrary, all evidence, and sober tradition are against 
it. Your priests impose on you, and confirm the evidence of their impostures, by 
their marvellous ignorance of Greek criticism, and painful specimens of their literary 
knavery ! Christ alone is that Rock on which the church is built : Peter is not, and 
he cannot be the Rock, as your priests pretend. This is the point on which we are at 
issue : we exalt Christ Jesus the eternal Son of God, as our only foundation. Your 
priests actually ])refer to this honor, an erring and feeble mortal, the man Peter! Is it 
not mortifying to the dignity of human nature, and man's noble })owers of reason, 
that any man should be so lost, and so atheistic in his princi})les, as deliberately to 
ptefer a frail mortal creature to the Great God, our Savior, Jesns Christ ! F(dlow 
Citizens, I implore you to shake otf the chains of ghostly ignorance and ini])osiiire, 
which the priests rivet on you. Tell them that you choose not to be stultified, and crush- 
ed down to the level of brutes, by them! What! can you ])()ssibly prefer a fi-ail, er- 
ring man, for the foundation of the church, and the basis of 3'our own eternal liopes, 
and reject Christ, the Almighty God ? If you do, fellow cilizeus, you renounce the 

19 



20G Rt)MAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

dignity, and the honor of man ; you throw wantonly away every thing that ennobles 
the Christian! 

It is well known to every Greek scholar, that the Roman catholic priests, in labor- 
ing to establish their fanatical error, on this point, have fallen into a disgraceful gram- 
matical blunder, for which a school boy would be disciplined. This they do in thett 
critical exposition of the words in Matt.xvi. 18. " Thou art Peter, a rock, and upon 
this rock will I build my church." By this imposition on the illiterate, they ex- 
pose their ignorance of Biblical criticism ; or, as the only alternative, they betray a 
mischicAOus act of knavery ! 

The true rendering is this : — " Thou art Petros ; and upon this the Petra,'— 
cTTi TavTr, rj) Jlerpa — I will build my church." Now, it was not Petros, Peter, who 
was to be the foundation. Christ said no such thing. These priests slander our 
Lord : — he said it was the Petra, not Petros, on which he built the church. And from 
the very phrase, namely, '■'■upon this the rock,'''' it is manifest that the Lord pointed to 
his own person, as he said, " upon this the rock ;" as, on another occasion, he said,^ — 
'•destroy thi^ temple," — meaning not the outward temple before them; but "this, the 
temple of his body." 

Now, it is notorious that your priests have fallen into the very error, into which th« 
Jews fell. They understood him to say* " their splendid temple of stone ai "1 timber," — 
and not his "own body." In like manner j^our priests make the Petros the same as 
'■'this the rock,'''' meaning not the divine person of Christ, but the frail man Peter ! 

And oars is the exposition given by St. Augustine : — " I have said in a certain pas- 
sage, respecting the apostle Peter, that the church is founded upon him as upon a 
rock." But now mark what this great man said afterwards, — " But I do know that I 
have frequently afterwards so expressed, that the phrase " upon this rock,'' should b« 
understood to be the rock which Peter confessed. For it was not said to him thou art 
Petra, but thou art Petros, for the rock was Christ." See Aug. Oper. Tom. i. p. 32. 
the first book of his "Retractaiiones." Bendict. Edit. Paris, 1685. This is also tho 
iudoment of seven other fathers. And let it be especially noted that what our Lord 
said to Peter about "the keys," and "the remission of sins," he also said to th» 
ciiurch of God." See Matt, xviii. 17, 18. and also to all the other apostles, to whom 
he gave "the keys," and power of disciplinary remission, just as much, and as expli- 
citlv, as to Peter. See John xx. 23. 

And, Ipray you, fellow citizens, to remember that your priests are at open war with 
the holy scriptures on this point. Let the inspired writers explain this matter to us. 
See 2 Corin. ix. 4. Paul says, " that rock was Christ.'" Will you give more heed 
to ignorant and profligate priests, than to the inspired and holy St. Paul ? Hear him 
again in Ephes. ii. 20. " We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and proph- 
ets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone,'' or rock. And in Revel, xxi. 14. 
Sr. John declares " that in the foundation were the names of the tivelve apostles," — 
Mild not Peter's merely. Read, think, and judge, I beseech you, for yourselves. Nay, 
hear St. Peter himself explain this ; you certainly will give more credence to St. Peter 
than to those illiterate and licentious priests, whom St. Peter in his hasty wrath, were 
he here, would " smite, and cut their ears oflV In his first Epistle ii. 6, 7. he declares 
Christ to be "the precious and elect, and chief corner stone, and the Petra, tht 
iffCK. ' Yer. 8. 

And moreover, our Lord himself settles the question about Peter's "supremacy." 
Sec Slatt. XX. 25. Mark x. 42. There he puts all his disciples on a perfect footing of 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 207 

equality. He charges them to borrow no model of power from the heathen : to allow 
of " no lordships ;" "no exercising of authority," over each other as his apostles, and 
ministers. These were "Gentile" customs, and not christian. And Peter never 
claimed supremacy ; and none of the apostles ever gave it to him in a compliment. 
Hear his own words, in 1 Epist. ch. v. while he is addressing "the elders who have 
the oversight of the flock," that is " teaching elders,'' or " the pastors.'' He assumes 
no supremacy over them; he claims no other rank than that of a fellow ''elder." 
" I am also an elder," — says the holy and humble apostle. And placing himself in 
their ranks, he charges them " not to be Lords over God's heritage !" How could he 
be supposed guilty of that tyranny and crime, against which he thus solemly guards 
the christian ministry? — Now, suppose one of their pious elders, or "priests," if 
you wijl, had said, — "Our Lord Peter! Our Lord God Pope Peter!" What 
would be have said ? Our Lord's words to himself, on another occasion, when 
he showed that he was neither supreme, nor infallible, would have ministered to him 
the words of the severe but just rebuke, — "Get thee behind me Satan! for thou 
savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men !" Hence he had no 
supremacy; and if Peter had no supremac}^ — your ipopes, were ihey even his suc- 
cessors, have none. 

But farther, I can produce seven of your fathers against this supremacy of the 
bishop of Rome. 1st. St. Augustine signed the decree of the Milevitan Council 
\^hich declared that " if any man shall appeal" from his own bishop, to any one, 
" beyond seas, let him be received into communion by none in Africa." Thus he de- 
•clares that there is no supremacy of the bishop of Rome, over the African bishops, 
and churches. See Mans. Concil. Collect. Tom. iv. 507. Venef. Edit, of 1785. 

I am aware ihat popish writers quote the following out of Augustine's Epist. 43 
alias 162. — " The supremacy of the Apostolical See, has always remained in the 
church of Rome." 

But can ihis be genuine, and no forgery ; when, as is testified above, Augustine 
signed the famous decree of the Milevitan Council, protesting against the papal su- 
premacy of Rome; and solemnly excommunicating all who should even a])peal to 
Rome against his own church and bishops in Africa? 

But the point is settled without supposing a forger}'-. The fatliers had not alwnvs 
the unanimous consent with themselves. In Tom. i. jd. 32. Retract. Lib. «., Augustine 
frankly admits that he had made Peter the Rock, and the foundation of the church. 
But this he retracted; and declares that "the Rock is Christ whom Peter confessed," 
"for," adds he, — "it was not said to him thou art Petra ; but thou art Pttros : for tiie 
Rock was Christ." 

2d. St. Jerome says, — " The church of Rome is not to be deemed one thing, and 
the church of the whole world, another." — " Wheresoever a bishop is, whether nt 
Rome, or Eugubiura, or at Constantinople, or Alexandria, or Tanais, he is of the sajne 
worth," &c. "But all bishops are successors of the apostles. Why do you i)roduce 
to me the custom of one city?" Sec Jerome to Evagr. Tom. ii. p. 512. Paris Edit. 
1602. Again he says — " Bishops should recollect, that they are greater than elderg, 
rather by ciisiom than the truth of the Lord's appointment ; and that they ought to 
rule the church in common." Jerome, o/i Titus, Tom. i. Lib. i. cap. 1. — Finch. 
p. 166. 

I am, fellow citizens, yours, &:c. 
W. C. B. 



208 ROMAN CATHOUC CONTROVERSTTr 

LETTER IX. 

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

^ Popery condemned by the Scriptures and the Fathers. 

"In the first six luindred years, there was no church, no one doctor, no one martyr, no- 
one confessor, no one member, in the West, or in any other part of tlie world, v\ ho was 
properly and formally a papist." — Voetius. 

Fellow Citizens: — We have seen in the progress of our discussion, that your 
priests have a cumbrous and inaccessible load of materials for their rule of faith. To 
the holy scriptures, they add the apocrypha, and oral tradition, and the unanimous 
consent of the fathers. The etlect of this is obvious. If I add to "any rule," or 
measure, two inches, or cut off two, from it, — it is no longer a rule : it is utterly 
destroyed. The very object for which it was made is lost. This leads infallibly 
into deism. Hence every Roman preist, just in proportion as he is a consistent papist 
is an irrecoverable deist;, and a stout-hearted opposer of God's word. His first les- 
son, and the first element of his system is this : The holy scriptures are not the rule 
of faith : they are not perfect ; their authority'- is given to them by the pope and his 
priesthood ! They have no divine authority over the soul and consciences of men, 
but what a profane priest gives to them ! 

This overwhelming truth our New York priests have taken incredible pains to 
convince the American community, in each of their letters, before they retreated. 
And there is not a reflecting man among us, whether he is christian or deist, who 
does entertain a doubt on tlie subject. Every body knows that the priests here are 
zis resolute, and as stout-hearted deists, as Voltaire, Hume, or Paine was ! And 
having gone this fatal length, it is no wonder that there does exist among our Ameri- 
can, as well as European Roman catholic priests, the same division which exists 
among the deists : namels'', the immortal deist, who believes in a future state; and the 
mortal deist, who does not believe in a future state! And in this they have, by the 
way, pontifical precedent and example. One of the popes of Rome, on his death 
bed, summoned his favorites around him, and made this extraordinary remark, " I 
am dying ; and I shall soon have three doubts solved, which have long hung on 
my mind; namely, — whether there be a heaven, — whether there be a hell, — and 
whether there be a God !" 

Bitt, by abandoning the evidence and weight o^ divine authority, for his religioii* 
the Roman priest gains his great object. He throws the whole proof of his novel 
system on the evidence of human aidhority, — and on tliat alone ! He is compelled to 
do this, because he is conscious that its essential doctrines, and rites were entirely 
invented, some centuries, after the Bible was given by God to the church. 

One principal fountain of the priests' authority and evidence, is the unanimous 
consent of the Fathers. On this I join issue with them : to this test I cheerfully 
follow them ; and we shall see that they are condemned by the fathers, as well as by 
the scriptures. Now, let me here stuie explicitly, the Roman catholic maxim and 
law on this point. It is this : — " That doctrine and rite which has the unanimous 
consent of the Fathers, is binding on the human conscience : that which has not the 
unanimous consent is of no authority whatever." This is the radical and fatal doctrine 
on which Romanism as a system of novel religion, is founded and reared. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



209 



Now, I can easily show that the distinctive doctrines and rites of Rome, do abso- 
lutely and utterly want this, their own essential evidence. And here let it be 
especially noted, that it is of no consequence to us whether or not the Romish priests 
produce quotations perfectly the reverse of those genuine ones which I shall produce. 
Let them do it : only let them quote fairly. We wish them to offer opposite quota- 
tions. In doing so, they will only ruin their cause the sooner. They will prove that 
the fathers do not only not agree with each other, — but that they do contradict them- 
selves. Hence, there can be no unanimous consent of the Fathers. 

I have formerly given a specimen of the Fathers on the popish supremacy ; I shall 
add a few more. And it will be edifying to give the exposition of a few of them on the 
famous text, " Thou art the Peter, and on this rock will I build my church,'' fyc. In my 
last letter, I gave St. Augustine's exposition. " It was not said to him, thou art Petra ; 
but thou art Petros: for the Rock was Christ." Tom. i. p. S2, Retractions. Again: 
*'Did Peter receive those keys, and did not John and James, and the other apostles 
not receive them? "What was given to him, was given to the church." Sermon 
. 149. Tom V. p. 766. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1685. 

St. Jerome declares " Christ to be the Petra, the Rock ; who granted to his apostles, 
— donavit apostolis — that they also should be called rocks." On Amos ; Tom. v. p. 
263, Paris Edit, of 1602. But, I shall help your priests to another quotation; for I 
wish to be impartial. In Tom. iv. p. 15, he makes Peter the Rock, and the chuich 
founded on him! Aga.m, in Tom. iii. p. 173, this consistent saint says: "The 
catholic church," (he does not say the Roman catholic church,) but, "the catholic 
church is founded in a firm root, upon the Petra, the Rock Christ." 

It is proper to state, however, that some who are well skilled in Jerome's writings, 
do maintain that when he makes Christ the petra, — the rock ; he extends this to all 
the apostles equally : " they are all rocks : the church rests on them all equally. 

I must also vindicate him from a quotation which your priests here, and in Europe, 
have given out of his book. Adv. Jovin. Lib i. cap. 14. It is this, — "Among the 
twelve to prevent schism, o)ie is elected, aud established as the head.'' Here the 
Jesuits are guilty of a partial translation ; and of garbling the entire sentence. I 
«hall give the true rendering, and the entire sentence: "But tliou sayest, the church 
is founded on Peter, although in another place, the very same thing is done upon all 
the apostles; and tbey all receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and th« 
strength of the church is established equally upon them all. Yet, therefore, among 
the twelve one is chosen, that, the head being appointed, the *ccasion of schism may 
be taken away," — that is, the one chosen was " head," or president to keep order. 
This was, in Jerome's view, all of Peter's supremacy. And even this is questioned ; 
for when the full college of apostles met, which was only while they were at Jerusa- 
lem, it was not Peter, but James who was "the head," and president. Acts XV. 

St. Chrysostom says "Christ did not say upon Peter, for he did not found hi« 
church upon a man ; but, upon faitli. What, therefore, means this Petra, — Rock ? 
Upon the confession contained in Peter's word." 0])cr. Tomi. vi. p. 233. Pari^ 
Edit. 1621. The same idea he advances in Sermon 54. on Matt. xvi. 18. 

In like manner Origen on Matt. xvi. : and Athanasius in his letter to Sorapion, 
Paris Edit. 1627. Also St. Cyril of Alexandria, Tom. v. p. 509, Paris Edit. 1638. 
Also St. Ambrose, De Inrarn. Sac. Lib. i., Paris Edit. 1690. And it h(dj)s my cause, 
to add, that St. Ambrose is so dt'stitutcof the unanimous consent, that he advocates, 
Peter's supremacy. Let tlie priests produce this contradiction, on his puiros, ami 

19» 



210 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST^ 

thereby aid our cause. And finallyt St. Hilary makes the rock confessed by Peter^ 
to be the only foundation of the church. See his work, De Trinit. Lib. vi. Paris 
Edit. 1652. The original of all these Greek and Latin Fathers, I am prepared to 
give, at any call. The original, in Greek and. Latin, is lying before me. I omit 
them only for want of room. 

Theodoret the Greek fatherrlhus wrote in 451 ; '•^Christ alone is the head of all : 
but the holy church is his body ; and we say that the saints are the members of his 
body; one, indeed, is the neck; and another the feet. By his legs, understand St. 
Peter, the first of the apostles." On Canticles, Lat. Edit. Paris 1608. Thus he 
makes Peter the legs, which are borne up by the feet ; and by no means the head ! 

Next, let me present you with a quotation or two from Turtiillian ; "Peter was 
called a stone, or a rock, for the building of the church. All the apostles were rocks." 
Contra Marc. Lib. iv. Again; — "Survey the apostolical churches, in which the 
very chairs of the apostles still preside over their stations ; in which their own epistles 
are recited ; uttering the voice, and representing the presence of each of them. Is 
Achaia nearest to thee? Thou hast Corinth. If thou art not far from Macedonia, 
thou hast the Philippians, and Thessalonians. If thou can^t go to Asia, thou hast 
Ephesus ; but if thou art near Italy, thou hast Rome, whence to us also authority is 
near at hand." De proescrip. adv. Hseres. cap. 36, p. 215, Paris Edit. 1675. 

This is the famous passage, which the Jesuits and other popish writers had sported 
so long, as an irrefragable proof, from one of the most ancient of the Fathers, of the 
supremacy of the Roman See. But the imposture has been detected, and exposed. 
Will my reader believe me, when I assure him that in quoting the above, they left 
out all the lines printed in Italicks ! In the Priests' Book, the quotation begins with, 
*• If thou art near Italy," &c. See Finch's Romish Controv. p. 214. 

Ambrose is usually set irt opposition to Peter's supremacy^ Hear his 
words; — "Faith is the foundation of the church; for it was not said of the flesh 
of Peter, but of his faith, that the gates of hell should not prevail against it." De 
Incarn. Dora. Sacram. Lib. 1. Cap. 5 p. 711. Bened. Edit. Par. 1690. Again; 
"What is said to Peter, is said to the Apostles." In Psal. 38. Tom. i. p. 858. Onco 
more, — " not unmindful of his place, he enacted the primacy, — a primacy of confes- 
sion, not of honor : a primacy o( faith, and not of orderJ'^ De Incarn. Lib. i. as above. 

Let me next carry you to St. Cyprian, who thus wTote in A. D. 248. — " The other 
Apostles were the same as Peter, endowed with an equal fellowship of honor, and 
power, &c.'* De Unit. Eceles. p. 107. Oxford edit. 1682.- Once more, in his pre- 
fatory Address to the bishops at the Council of Carthage he said, — "No one of us has 
set himself up as the bishop of bishops; or has driven, by tyrannical fear, his col- 
leagues to the necessity of obeying him ; since every bishop has his own will for the 
exercise of his liberty and power &c." And this was the sentence of the council of 
Carthage. See Labb. and Cossart's Concil. Tom. i. p. 786. 

St. Hilary we must not omit: hear his words uttered so far back as A. D.-358. 
"The building of the church is upon this Petra, Rock of his (Peter's) confession: 
this faith is the foundation of the church : through this faith the gates of hell are 
weak against it." De Trinit. Lib. 6. Par. Edit. 16:52. Again in his Expos, of Psal. 
52, he says, — " The apostles obtained the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Once 
more; — "we have known no rock but Christ; because it is said of him, — but the 
Rock, Petra was Christ." Expos, of Psal. 140. Enarr. p. 1138. 

Finally; St. Gregorit, the pope, makes an enlightened opposition to the supre- 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVEHST. 211 

macy of the pope, in A. D. 590. I could fill pages from him; but I select the fol- 
lowing, — "Ego autem fidenter dico, &c. I confidently say, that whosoever calls 
himself Universal Bishop, (Pope,) or desires to be so called in his pride, is the fore- 
runner of Antichrist: because he, in his pride, prefers himself to the rest. And he 
is conducted to error with a similar pride. For as " that ivicked one'" wishes to appear 
a god above all men, so, whosoever he is who desires to be called sole bishop, 
extols himself above all other bishops." Lib. 7. Indie. 15, Epist. 33, Ad. Maur. Aug. 
Bened. Edit, of Paris, 1705. And in Lib. 7. Indie. 15. Epist. 40, he shows beyond 
tlie denial of Jesuits, that the bishops of Alexandria, and Antioch, with him of Rome, 
were equally descended from the Apostle ; and that the one had no supremacy over th^ 
other. And this man, remember, I pray you, was a pope, and one of your saints, 
whom you worship, and adore with the burning of incense. Hence, jsoa shonldtell 
your priests, who scandalously impose on laymen's ignorance of history, that they 
stand a poor chance in their hopes of getting into paradise by the merits and prayers 
of St. Gregoi-y, the pope ! For they oppose and blaspheme this demi god, by their 
modern popery. You may depend on it, if St. Gregory, the pope, has any control of 
the gates of paradise, not one soul of the Jesuits can ever get in for love, or money ! 

To the authority of the Father's, I shall add the decisions of councils, against the 
papal supremacy. It is well known that before the council of Nice, which first 
divided the government of the chruch into four Patriarchal seats, Rome had very 
little, or rather no pre-eminence. All the Jesuits are, of course, well, acquainted 
with the verses of-iEneas Silvius, who became Pope Pius ii., namely, — "Antequam 
Nincenum, &c. Before the Nicene council, every bishop or pastor, lived to him- 
self: little respect was paid to the church of Rome." See Pope Pius, ii. Epist. 301: 
and Willet's Synopsis p. 158. In the Nicene council, no primacy of power was 
given to Rome, over the whole church. The Patriarchs of Jerusalem, of Antioch, 
and Alexandria, were independent of the bishop of Rome. The fact is, the bishop of 
Rome was really a small concern in those days. The Oriental churches knew 
scarcely any thing of his name, and nothing of the modern facetious claims of abso^ 
lute supremacy, made by our Romish fanatics ! 

Lastly : your own master spirit, the Jesuit Bellarmine admits unluckily, what 
"overthrows the papal supremacy. He says, 1st. that — "It doth not depend on 
Christ's institution, sed ex Petri facto, but from the fact or deed of Peter, that the 
bishop of Rome, in preference to the bishop of Antioch, or any other See, should be 
St. Peter's successor." "It is," sa3's he, '■'■jure htimano, non jure divino :'''' — by 
"human law, not by divine right, or law, that he has all that power, wjiich he has." 
"It is not ex prima mstitutione, S,-c. from the first institution of the pontificate, 
whicii is read of in the gospel." Again, he frankly admits, — "■' Romaiium pontificem, 
&c." that the Roman pontif is the successor of Peter, is not expressly set down in 
the scriptures; but it is grounded on St. Peter's tradition." See Bellarm. De Pontif. 
Lib. ii. cap. 17. also cap. 16. 

Thus, your principal writer abandons all ]iroof from scripture. Hence, it is disho- 
nest, and sheer imposition, in any of your priests to quote ths text oi' Peter, the JRoch 
to prove the pope's supremacy. And touching this writer's proof of Peter's supre- 
macy from tradition, — his whole argument, in one word, amounts to tliis. A priest 
goes into court to claim the possession of an immense estate : — " It is true," says he, 
"I do not claim it by any written deed, or by the will of the true owner. But the 
genuine members of my family, John Roe, and Nicholas Doc have a tradition in our 



2J2 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

favor, from time immemorial, — and, therefore, we claim it, in opposition to those who 
have the genuine and authentic will; in as much as our tradition is better than any 
deed or will, in the jwssession of the lineal heirs ! !" This is the whole amount of the 
Roman catholic argument. 

And thus the supremacy of the Romish church and pope arose, not from the will 
of God, or an}'- command of Christ; or the voice of Peter, or any legal deed of the 
church : but, like the power and supremacy of Caesar, Alexander, or Tamerlane, — 
it arose out of human pride and ambition ! It was reared by iniquity, fraud, and 
atheism : it was erected at the expense of millions of human lives : and the blood of 
eixtij eight millions has cemented it ! ! And wo, wo, wo be to the man who, in any 
way, aids, or sustains it. It is an enemy to the human race ! It shuts up as far as 
it can, the gates of heaven ! It has already been the eternal undoing of millions ! It 
is the most malignant enemy of God. And the Almighty has pledged all his perfec- 
tions to destroy it for ever and ever ! See Rev. chap, xviii. 

Your sincere friend, &c. 

W. C. B. 



LETTER X. 

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Poptry condemned by Scripture and the Fathers. 

" O alienate from God! O spirit accursed ! 
Forsaken of all good ! I see thy fall 
Determined " Milton. 

Fellow CITIZE^^s: — I finished, in my last letter, the quotation of testimonies 
from the Fathers against the supremacy : I now beg leave to observe : — 

Second, that the use of images in divine worship is condemned by Scrijiture and the 
Fathers. 

Hear the voice of God to j^ou:— " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him 
only shalt thou serve." Math. iv. 10. "Little children keep 3'ourselvesfrom idols.'" 
1 John V. 21. Deut. xxvii. 15. " Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or 
molten image, an abomination unto the Lord ; the work of the hands of the crafts- 
man ; and putteth it in a secret place : and all the people shall answer and say, 
Amen.'^ And hear the voice of God in the second commandment: " Thou shalt not 
make unto thee any graven image ; or any likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, 
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth : thou shalt 
not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.^^ And the whole of the scriptures, 
on every page, denounce idolatry as rebellion against God, and sheer atheism ! 

But the popish priests leave put the whole of the second commandment from their 
catechism, except a line or so. They make three commands in the first table, and 
seven, in the second. They express the first precept thus; "Thou shalt have no 
other gods before me : thou shalt not make unto thee any graven thing, &:c." See 
the Catech. of the council of Trent, authorized by pope Pius V. There is a double 
act of treason here against Almighty God. They leave out the word image, and 
render it "graven thing:" and they cut off the whole of the precept after the words 
"graven thing." And to make up the ten precepts, they divide the tenth into two. 



ROMAN CA'THOLIC CONTKOVEMT. 210 

For instance; their ninth commandment is : "Thou shalt not covet tliy neighbor's 
house." And the tenth is : " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife." &c. 

Let us now hear the Fathers against the use of images in the worship of God. St/ 
Augustine says: "This is the chief cause of this mad impiety, that a figure resem- 
bUng a hving form, operates more forcibly upon the feehngs of these wretched men, 
than its being manifest that it is not hving ; and therefore, that it ought to be despised 
by.;the Hving." Expos, of PsaL 113, Enarr. Again,- in his 44th Epist. to Max. he 
says, — "know thou, that none of the dead, or any thing made of -God, is worshipped 
as God., of the cathohc christians." Here he states that those who worship, or bow 
down to the dead, or to creatures, are not catholic christians. There is another 
famous passage in St. Augustine in Lib. JDe Mor., or his Manners of the cathohie 
church, — in which he declares the worshipping of sainfs tombs and pictures, to be as 
bad as gluttony and drunkenness. Here are his words : " I know that many axe 
worshippers of tombs and pictures; I know that there be many who bantjuet most 
riotously over the graves of the dead, and giving meat to the carcasses, do bury them- 
selves upon the buried ; and attribute their gluttony and drunkenness to religion." 
Q-uoted in the 14th Homily of the church of England on the Peril of Idolatry, part 2, 
Again, he says, — "Images be of more force to crooken an unhappy soul, than to 
teach and instruct it." Again, — "When images are placed in temples, and set in 
honorable sublimity, and begin once to be worshipped, forthwith breedeih the most 
vile affection of error." See 14 Homily, ut supra. 

Hear Tertullian, — " Omnis forma, &c. Every form, or little form must be called 
an idol." " God forbids as well the making as the worshipping of an idol, — the 
divine law proclaims thou shalt not make anidol.'^ De idol. cap. iv. p. 87. Paris 1675. 

St. Athanasius says: "0\oj$firMv &c. The invention of idols is not good, but 
altogether evil. For that which has a bad beginning, being wholly bad, cannot he 
deemed good in any way." Orat. Contr. Gent. Par. Edit. 1627. Finch, p. 195. 

St. Ambrose thus writes : " The gentiles worship wood, because they think that 
is the image of God: but the image of the invisible God is not in that which is seen; 
but in that which is not seen." On Psalm 118, Tom. i. p. 1095. Bened. Edit. 
Paris 1690. Again, — " The church knows no vain ideas, and vain images of figures ; 
but she knows the true substance of the Trinity." On the Flight of time, Tom. i. 

Of the same sentiment, are Origen. Clemens Alexand. Eusebius, Cyprian, Lao- 
tantiur-, and Epiphanius. Gregory insists that images may be used, " but are by no 
means to he worshipped or lowed doivn unio.'^ Sec Registr. Epist. Lib. ii. Ind. 4. p. 
1100. Boned. Edit. Paris 1705. 

Memorable are the words of Lactantius, Lib. ii. De Orig. Error. Tom. i^ p. 185» 
Paris Edit. 1748 : " There is no doubt but that there is no religion in that place where- 
ever any image is. For if religion stand in goodly things, and there is no godliness 
but in heavenly things, thin, are images without religion.''^ 

In like manner writes St. Cyril. But I shall close this with the words of the coim- 
cil of Eliberi in Sjjain, held in A. D. 800. "Placuit picturas, &.c. It haih seemed 
good to us that piciurcs ought not to be in the churches, lest that which is worshipped 
or adored be painted on the walls." Finch, p, 256. Thus scripture and the Fatliers 
condenuj. the use^ and the worship of images in the church. 

Third. — The worship of angels and saints is condemned by the scri})tures and the 
Fathers. Col. ii. 18. "Let no man beguile you in a voluntary humility, and wor- 
shipping of angels." When Joh» in an unguarded moment fell down to worship the 



8tl4 ROM.\y CATHOLIC COW TROTERST. 

angel, (Rev. xix. 10.) he was sharply rebuked, — "see thou doit not — worship God." 
In Psalm Ix. 11. we are taught by the Lord how vain is the help of man, be he 
€Uad, or living, — ''O God, give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of manP'' 
In Jeremiali iii. 23. we are taught to look to no created being : but unto God only for 
salvation: — *• Truh- in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel." In Acts iv. 12. 
it is declared by St. Peter, who spoke by the Holy Ghost, that no angel, and no saint 
can help to save us : — " There is no salvation in any other, than in Jesvs : for there is 
no other name under heaven, given among men, tcherehy we must be saved.''' No, not 
one among all angels under heaven: none among all men, in heaven, or on earth I 
And to make it doubly sure,^God has thus proclaimed, in Jerem. xvii. 5, — " Thus 
saith the Lord, cursed is the man that trusteth in man ; tliat maketh Jlesh his arm: and 
whose heart departethfrom the Lord." — Hear also the words of our Savior, in Matt. iv. 
10., *' Jesus saith unto him, get thee hence, Satan, for it is icritten, thou shalt worship 
the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."" 

From all these divine passages we gather these two essential doctrines : — Isr. All 
persuasions, or motives to use, or worship idols, and go after other gods, come from 
Satan. 2d. There is no place in divine worship for saints' merit, or saints' worship. 
For it is certain that none of all his creatures can bring up to the throne of God any 
personal worth, or merit, or sanctity, which he can add to our Lord Jesus Christ's in- 
finite atonement, and his holy and prevalent intercession. No angel, or man can be 
supposed to be a suitable object to pray to, unless they know the hearts of all men. But 
God only is the sole object of worship, because " he o^'lt knoweth the hearts of all 
the children of men." 1 Kings viii. 39. 

- Now hear the Fathers on this point : — St. Bernard on Heb. i. 14. says, — • ' E vidently 
:arethey our ministering servants, not our masters, or lords." And on Psal. 90. sec. 
11. " If not our lords and masters, then are they not to be worshipped." 

St. Augustine thus declares, — "Christ is the High Priest who has entered, for us, 
■within the veil, and who alone of those who have appeared in the flesh intercedes for 
■W5." In Psal. 61. Tom. iv. p. 633. Bened. Edit. Paris. And the f:>llovs-iug is irre- 
sistible, — ••Rtspondent, &c. they answer, we worship not evil spirits, we worship 
those beings whom you call angels, the powers and servants of the great God. I wish 
you would worship them, and you would soon leain from them, not to worship them. 
Take the angel for a teacher." He then refers to St. John, and the angel whorebuk- 
-ed him. Aug. Oper. Tom. iv. p. 1054, in Psal. 96. Bened. Edit. 

The words of St. Athanasius are equally decisive, — Ov^ Cw e^i Sec. It belongs 
alone to God to be worshipped, and the angels themselves are aware of this; 
for although they surpass others in glory, they are all creatures, and are not beings to 
be worshipped, but beings who worship the Lord." Third Orat. against the Arians; 
Paris Edit. 1627. To the same puqDose are the words of Origen, Theodoret, Greg- 
ory Nyssen, Epiphanius, and others. 

Fourth. — Prayers in an unknown tongue are condemned by Scripture and the Fa- 
thers. The Breviary, used by the priests, is in Latin : and their prayers, and the 
mass, are exhibited in Latin. It is true, Roman cathohc prayer books are found in 
English. But I have had occasion to observe in a former Letter, that these books put 
forth in English, are very^ ditferent from the genuine Breviaries. The}' are sheer im- 
positions on you, their ovm devotees, designed mainly to impose upon Protestants. In 
these English mass books, they appear marvellous^ orthodox ; and do make a mar- 
▼ellous approach to Protestant prayer books. They have, it is true, the prayers to 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 215 

the saints, and " the rosary of the Mother of God." But these are shorn of their chief 
blasphemies, to stop the mouths of uninformed Protestants. The infamous blasphe- 
my contained in the prayers to the Virgin, for instance, is carefully expunged in the 
English versions of the Breviary. I mean the phrase " Holy Mother command thy 
Son, ^c." In the Latin Breviary, it is "jube filio," command thy son. "Holy Mo- 
ther, ora patrem, jubejilio, — pray to theFather, and command thy Son." 

Again, — " Jure matris impera dilectissimo tuo filio Domino nostro Jesu Christo; 
By the rights of a mother, command thy most beloved Son, our Lord Jesu? Christ." 
See Bonavent. Cor. Beat. Virg. Maria : Tom. vi. Romf Edit. A. D. 1588. 

Again, — " O felix puerpera, nostra plans scelera, jure matris impera Eedemptori! 
Ora suj)pliciter (Patrem ;) praecipe sublimiter (Redemptori.") That is, — "O happy 
Mother of God, by virtue of the rights of a mother, atoning for our crimes, lay thy 
commands on the Redeemer ! Humbly supplicate the Father ; lay thy imperial com- 
mands on thy Son, the Redeemer!" See Hist. Sec. Char. August. Ue Commem. 
Beat. Mar. Fir.— Morn. Exer. p. 523. 

Now, these horrid blasphemies are weekly perpetrated by your priests in Latin, 
But did such a prayer book lie before the public in the common tongue, and were 
such monstrous fictions, absurdities, and blasphemies, as are recorded on the pages of 
the Latin Breviary, uttered in a New- York, or any American audience, — they w^ould 
be shocked to such a degree thatthey would start from their seats, and leave the 
Chapel, to save themselves from the inflictions of such prayers, and vows as are fit 
only for Rabshakeh, and the court of the King of Assyria! 

I hesitate not to affirm, that this reveals one of the chief reasons for your priest's 
employing Latin. No priest dare come out in the vulgar tongue, among an enlight- 
ened people, v/ith their prayers to the saints ; or with the monstrous, and revolting 
fictions of the mass, in English. They would as soon venture out with an English 
translation of St. Bonaventure's psaltery; in which all the psalms are altered so as to 
be addressed to the Virgin Mary : or, with an English version of the most infamous 
and obscene questions put by priests to persons,— and even females, in E77glish, 
at the confessional ! 

This practice of Latin prayers, and services, is condemned by St. Paul, speaking 
by the Holy Ghost. See 1 Cor. xiv. "If any man speak in an unknown tongue, 
let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter let him keep silence in the church." 
Again, Ver. 9. "Except ye utter by the tongue, words easy to be imderstood, how 
gliall it be shown what is spoken? For ye shall speak into the air!" " If I know 
not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh, a barbarian, and 
he that speaketh, shall be a barbarian unto me !" 

Here, my fellow citizens, St. Paul declares that your priests make themselves, ab- 
solutely, nothing but barbarians unto you. And if you believe St. Paul, speaking by 
inspiration, you are bound to believe them barbarians, when they insult you by their 
senseless Latin mummery ! When will you rouse uj) and begin to act as men, — as 
rational beings! When will you assert your mental and spiritual liberty; and roll 
off from you the^e endless wrongs, and insults, heaped on you, by designing sacer- 
dotal knaves ! Arise, and maintain your rights. Were you going to petition a friend, 
oa: the Corporation, or the Congress, for a special favor, would you acklress them in 
an unknown tongue? Do you not sec the monstrous absurdity oi' J jUI in i)raytrs, 
which scarcely even one of your priests can translate, or even read accurately, and 
none of all the people can understand ! Does not your Maker conmiaud you to uso 



5J16 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

a known tongue? Hear the words of Paul, 1 Cor. xiv. 15., "I will pray with the 
Spirit, and 1 will pray with the understanding also.'' But no people can obey this 
command, under your priests' impositions. None of you can understand one word ! 

Hear, now, the Fathers of the church. They condemn the prayers in unknown 
tongues. Origen says, — " Christians in prayers, use not the very words of scripture" 
(that is the Hebrew ?nd Greek,) " but the Greeks use the Greek, the Romans, the 
Latin, and so every one according to his own dialect, does pray unto God, &c." "And 
he who is the Lord of every language, hears the prayers put up to him in every lan- 
guage.''' Contr. Cels. Lib. 8. p. 402. 

Hear St. Ambrose, — "If ye come together to edify the church, those things ought 
to be spoken that the hearers may understand : for what does he profit the people,, who 
speaks in mi unJcnown tongue V In 1 Cor. xiv. And if your priests do not know 
that the Hebrews attempted this innovation, before them, let them now knov.- it. And 
let them know, moreover, that St. Ambrose rebuked the folly thereof. In the place 
above quoted, he thus adds, — " There were some, especially of the Hebrews, that 
used the Syriac, and the Hebrew tongue, in their services^ but these aimed at their 
own glory and commendation, not at the people's benefit." What a rebuke to your 
haughty priests, from one of your own sainted fathers. Let them writlie under the 
scourge of St. Ambrose ! 

But hear St. Augustine next : " Intelligere debemus, &;c. We ought to understand 
what we pray for, that we may not like birds, but like men, sing unto God. For 
black-birds, and parrots, and crows, and magpies, &c., are taught to sound forth 
what they understand not. But to" (and this includes, as in David's psalms, 
both pra3-ers and praisings,) "sing with understanding, is granted not to a bird, but 
to a man, through God's good pleasure." Enan-at. in Psal. 18, Morning Exer. p. 
303. Thus you see that father Augustine, and his ancient associates, considered 
prayers in an unknown tongue, as similar every way to the piatings of a magpie, or a 
parrot ! Origen, Chr3'sostom, Jerome, Basil the Great, are decidedly of the same 
opinion. Their original words are before me. I omit them for want of room. See 
Fulk's Confut. of the Rhemish Test, on 1 Cor. xiv. 

But I cannot omit Cardinal Cajetan, your own champion's words. In his Com- 
ment, in 1 Corin. cap. xiv. he says : " Ex hac Pauli, &c. From this doctrine of St. 
Paul, it follows, that it is better for the edification of the church, that the public 
prayers which the people hear, should be made in that language which both priests 
and people understand, than that they should be made in Latin!" Hear, finally, 
St. Thomas Aquinas, your angelical doctor, — "Plus lucratur, «Sr.c. He gains most 
who prays and understands the words which he speaks, Sz-c." " Melius est, &c. It 
is better that the tongue which blesses, should interpret, for good words should be 
spoken to the edification of faith." Now surely where the people listen to the Latin 
prayers, no man can understand — no man can diligently say, amen ; no man can, 
along w^ith the priest, offer up a petition. How forcible the words of the apostle Paul : 
*' I thank God, I speak with tongues more than j^ou all ; but I had rather speak five 
words to be understood by, and to edif}', those that hear me, than ten thousand words, 
in an unknown tongue!" 1 Cor. xiv. 18. 

Thus far, we see, — your system is condemned hy the word of God and the ancient 
Fathers of the. church. 

I am, fellow citizens, yours respectfully, &x. 

W. C. B. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 217 

i,^ LETTER XL 

10 THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Popery condemned hy Scripture and the Fathers. 

*'But the abominable, and murderers, and impure, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all 
fiars, shall have their part in the lake which biirneth with fire and brimstone." — Rev. xxi. 8. 

Fellow Citizens; — Having despatched the chief marks and notes of your priests* 
church, I thought it proper, before I entered on a minute examination of your sacra- 
ments, and essential rites, and doctrines, to take a rapid view of your system, as a 
wliole ; and to show you that we do not Hghtly affirm that popery is condemned by 
scripture and the Fathers. 

Your priests have their grand test of the truth of their whole system ; namely, the 
unanimous consent of the Fathers. These Fathers explain the scriptures, say they, and 
give " the only true meaning of them :" these Fathers conveyed the genuine traditions, 
and handed down the holy Roman catholic rites, ceremonies, and sacraments. In 
fact, the unanimous consent of the Fathers is the pillar of popery. This unanimous 
consent of the sainted writers, you say, is wielded by the pope, and the church, with 
infallible and immutable precision. It props up the tottering stool of St. Peter, and 
sustains the pope on it ; and he in his turn, sustains the unanimous consent of the 
Fathers. I am justifiable, therefore, in taking some time, and pains to overthrow it. 

And before we dismiss it, I trust it will be made to appear as absurd and ridiculous, 
as the claims of the holy and chaste priests to sanctity ! We therefore go on : — 

Fifth. — Your peculiar worship offered to the Virgin, '■'•the mother of 'God^'''' is 
condemned by scripture, and the Fathers. Whatever is not enjoined of God in his 
worship, is to be considered will-worship ; and is, therefore, to be rejected, as forbidden 
of God. That which Paul in Col. ii. 18, calls dprjGKeia. the worshipping of angels, i'S 
by him called in ver. 23. edeXodpncrKeia ivill-worship. 

Now, in all the New Testament, there is no command to pray to Mary, no example 
favoring it, either on the part of Christ, or of his apostles. The angel used the words 
to her, which you torture wickedly into a prayer, '^ Hail Mary ! Ave Maria. '^^ Now, 
who that impious blasphemer was, who first conceived the monstrous idea of this 
being a prayer, and an act of worship, is not known, — history does not reveal the 
infamy of his name. The angel simply used the common salutation, ^aipe. And it 
no more includes the idea of worship, than our common salutation, " How are you 1 
or, Goodhye, — a contraction for ^'' God he with you.'"' "Hail Mary!" It is the same 
word used by our Savior in Matt. v. 12, to his people, and there rendered rejoice ye I 
Did our Savior in this address, worship his audience? If so, then the angel also 
adored Mary. And if so, you are correct in worshipping her with your Ave Maria ! 
If not^ then you are imposed upon, by knavish priests ! 

Our Lord, while as man, he did his mother reverence, — as one " under the law," — 
never adored her, never admitted her right to interfere as intercessor, or adviser, in 
his mediatorial work. There is a strong instance and proof of this, in John ii, 4. 
Mary seems to have suggested the idea that he should miraculously give wine : he 
replied in language of the most polished respect, — Hwai, Lady, wliat to mc, and to 
thee ? " My hour is not yet come." That is, — " Lady, — I honor you as my mother 
in th(j flesh, as Son of man : but as Son of God, what is common between me and 

20 



218 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

thee?" Nothing: I receive no hints, no instructions; as Son of God, I have no 
mother: I have no sovereign, "My hour," fixed by me as God, '*is not yet come. I 
shall work a miracle when my hour comes." And the fact confirms this exposition. 
If your i)rayers had been due to her, then St. Peter and St. John, and all the ajjos- 
iles were very impious, very negligent, and most criminal men. They never name 
lier : they otler no vows to her : rear no altars to her : made her no statues ; brought 
no incense to her! What impious atheists these men, the holy apostles, must have 
been, in the belief of all Roman catholics dyed in the wool ! 

But let us hear the Fathers; — Epiphanius bishop of SrJamis, in 366, thus wrote, — 
" AXX' dure HXi'aj &c. But neither is Ehas to be worshipped, although he be 
alive ; nor is John to be worshipped." ***** "Nor is Thekla, or any one of the 
saints worshipped. For that ancient error shall not prevail over us, to forsake the 
living God; and to worship the things that are made by him. For they served and 
worshipped the creature more than the Creator, and became fools! For if an angel 
will not be worshipped, hoio much more loill not she that was horn of Anna, (Mary) ?" 
Contra Haeret. 79. p. 448. See also Usher who quotes it: and Finch, Controv. p. 
242. — Again he says, — "HMaap«&c. Let Mary be in honor, but let the Lord be 
worshipped." Again, — " Let Mary be in honor, and let the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost be worshipped. Let no man worship Mary. This mystery is ordained, I say not 
iox woman, but not even for a man ; but for God. The angels themselves do not assent to 
this doxology ." Do. p. 450. and 449. And Usher in his Keply to the Jesuit Fisher : p. 345. 
St. Augustine claims your unwavering faith here, and surely one of your demi- 
gods, as he is, must be submitted to implicitly, by every priest, who is not a rebel to 
the saints in the ghostly calendar. '•'■Who is my mother, and ivho my brethren?'''' 
Then pointing to his rf?5c/j;Zes, he added, — "these are my brethren, and whosoever 
shall do the will of ray father, the same is my brother, and my mother, and my sis- 
ter." Now hear St. Augustine, — "What else did he teach us by thjs, but that we 
should prefer our s^jfrifwrt/ to our ccrTiaZ relationship," &c. — "Mary, therefore, was 
more blessed in adopting the faith of Christ, than in conceiving his fiesh. For when one 
said. Blessed is the womb thatbarethee, he answered, Yea rather blessed are they that 
hear the word of God and keep it." — " Her maternal relation would have profited Mary 
nothing, if she had not home Christ more blessedly in her heart, than in hex flesh.'" 
See Oper. Tom. vi. p. 342. De Sanct. Virg. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1685. How completely 
does St. x'Vugustine here overturn and destroy the popish monstrous tenet of worshipping 
Mary as " the Mother of God !" " Her mater7ml relation," says this Roman infallible 
oracle, — " would have profited Mary nothing if she had not borne Christ more bles- 
sedly in her heart." Instead of being "Mediatrix," and a "goddess," and " inter- 
cessor," — as your priests feign, — she needed salvation from Christ, as well as the 
humblest sinner. Ilow completely does St. Augustine, then, annihilatethe blasphe- 
mous title invented by the priests, and given to Mary, namely, " the Mother of God P'' 
Sixth : — The judicial power of your popes and priests to forgive sins, is condemned 
by scripture, and the Fathers. The council of Trent, Sess. 14. Canon I. declares 
penance a sacrament, and dooms " to perdition," the unhappy man who doubts this, 
or denies that it was instituted by Christ, — "to reconcile those christians to God, 
who have fallen into sin after baptism." It is divided by your priests according to the 
council of Trent, into two parts : 1st. The matter, or the acts of the penitent, contrition, 
confession, and satisfaction. 2. The judicial absolution of the priest in these words, 
*' Ego io absolve, I absolve thee.'" And, once in each year, at least, must every true 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 219 

Roman catholic go to his priest, for confession, penance, and absolution. Thus, at 
one short kneeling, a man must confess the sins of the whole year ! But, then, your 
priests affect, though under the hazard of a '* mortal impiety," to divide sin, — 1st into 
deadly sins, — of which there are only these seven classes, — pride, covetousness, luxury, 
anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth! 2d. into venial sins; or those easily forgiven; or, 
to use the words of your writer Sonnius, — "venial sins are worthy of 'pardon:'''' or as 
Bellarmine hath it, — " they make not a man guilty of eternal death." Andradius 
and your St. Bonaventure are even more accommodating, — " For venial sins," say 
they, — " we do not so much as need repentance." Now, all sins, not ranked under 
the seven deadly sins, are venial. These mortal sins the professed "penitent" affects 
to confess in the priest's ears. And upon "the exact confession of them," says the 
council of Trent, Sess. 14. cap. 6. " the penitent has absolution pronounced on him, 
not conditional, or declarative only, hut absolute, and judicial/^ And thus the priest 
pronounces an absolute and eternal pardon, " not conditional," for he cannot know 
the heart, he cannot know whether the penitent does truly and sincerely repent : it is 
" not conditional." And the deluded man is assured that he can plead it before the 
bar of his Maker, with infallible success ! The penance to "make satisfaction," is 
some bodily suffering, as fasting, kneeling in church, beating the breast, polling the 
head, going in hair cloth, saying many Ave Marias, or as the simple faithful do in Ire- 
land, crawling round the course, at Loch Dearg, or Holy Well, on their bare knees, 
on the sharp pebbles ; or walking a number of miles on pilgrimage, with their shoes 
filled with dry pease, which the "knowing ones," particularly the delinquent priests, 
take care to boil! But, all cases of penance are dispensed with, as usual, in this 
infamous system, for a stipulated sum of money, from 25 cents, to one hundred, or 
five hundred dollars ! 

This monstrous system of impiety is worse than heathenism. But this was the 
predicted feature of " Babylon the Great," the master-pieco of popery. That system 
stands out alone in this eternal infamy, that it made merchandize in the souls of men.'''' 
The slave dealer traffics in human bones, muscles, and flesh ! But according to the 
prediction of John in the Apocalypse, popery traffics in human souls. See Revel, 
xviii. 13. Monstrous as this appears to every one, your priests, nevertheless, affect 
gravity enough, to quote holy scripture for it. For instance, Mattii. xvi. 19. is pres- 
sed in as an evidence. Peter "received the keys of the kingdom." Hence he has 
the exclusive power "of binding, and loosing." 

Here, there is the commission of manifold errors in pressing this text into their ser- 
vice. First, admitting it to have been spoken exclusively to Peter, it remains to be 
proved that your popes are his successors : and even although they were so, at first, 
we have demonstrated by a chain of evidence that no priest can break, that the suc- 
cession has, in every point, been cut off, entirely, and forever ! Second : the power 
of "binding, and loosing, and opening," with the keys, was given to the other apos- 
tles, in every respect, as much, as it was given unto Peter. I refer you to John xx. 
23. " Jesus says unto them (the apostles) receive ye the Holy Ghost : whosesoever sins 
ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained." 

But, third, this power was given to the church, who, by her ]iroper officers, has the 
conservative power of discipline, and of restraining and casting out from her holy 
communion, the impure and wicked. I beg to refer you to Matih. xviii. l^. "Verily 
I say to you," says Jesus Christ to all his, apostles, and ecclesiastical otiicers, in holy 
succession, — '^whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and u'hat- 



^•^0 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

soever yt shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heartn. ff'here two or three art 
srathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Hence, Christ beiug 
iu "the midst of us," in liis church gathered in his name, the deed is his own, when 
duly done; and by him is it ratified. 

Of these tilings are your priests wilfully ignorant, for they are miserably defective 
in theological science ; and the accurate knowledge of tiie Bible. It forms, in fact, 
no distinctive part of their studies I 

By ''the kingdom of heaven," in the gospel, is meant the church on earth. How, 
else, could it be compared to '' a field having tares and wheat." Or to '"the net hav- 
ing fishes, good and bad." Matth. xiii. 47. Or the wedding feast chamber, having 
guests good and bad ? But youi priests, stupidly enough, make it the heaven above : 
and give Peter the keys to open up those gates which Christ alone opened, into 

HKAVEN ! 

This point settled, the matter is easy. The church, by her proper officers, exer- 
cises the keys of discipline, receiving in the truly penitent, on their confession : shut- 
ting out the apostate and vile: and receivings back again the truly contrite. "The 
power of remitting sins, given to the church," says bishop Jeremy Tayloi's works, p. 
587. " is nothing but an authority to mmister that pardon given by Jesus Christ." 
And St. Jerome says, "the church pardons sins, as the Levitical priest clehnsed the 
lepers ; — that is, he did discern whether they were clean or not, and so restored them 
TO the congregation; or shut them out." And memorable are the words of St. Au- 
gustine, — "ApudDeum, &;c. God regards not the sentence of the priest; but the 
life of the penitent." He adds, " The priest is something as to the ministiy-, and the 
dispensation of the word and sacraments : but nothing as to the purifying, and justify- 
ing of the sinner, /or 72o;ie tcorks that, in the inner man, but He who created the whole 
man.'' See Bishop Taylor. DuctorDub. p. 587. 

I am. fellow citizens, vours respectfullv, 

W. C' B, 



LETTER XII. 

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHrRCH. 

On the Unity of the Romish Church. 

'• If there is aught, thought, or to think, absurd, 

Irrational and wicked, tlii= is more. 

This most; the sin of devils, or of those 

To devils growing fast." Pollok. 

Fellow Citizens: — I invited your attention, in my last, to the judicial power 
claimed by Roman catholic priests, to forgive, and absolve from sins. 

This impious system of your priests, is not only based on the pervejsion of scrip- 
ture, but it is, in ever)" form, opposed to the whole sj'stem of Bible truth. " Christ 
is the author and finisher of our faith:" he has, by his one sacrifice forever peifected 
them that are sanctified:" "by the deeds of the law, no flesh living can be justified." 
" Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us." It 
man can make satisfaction, and can propitiate God by pains, penance, and prayers, 
then is not the atonement of our Lord perfect ? And if not perfect, it is no atonement 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 221 

at all. To make place for penance and human satisfaction, is to utter the lie to our 
most blessed Savior, who, when dying, said, in reference to his atonement, — "/i is 
Jinished r'' If there be any thing of the penalty, or the curse still remaining in tempo- 
ral evils, and afflictions, then has not Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law! 
That wretched priest who has the audacity to hear deluded victims of popery, at the 
confessional, and pronounce his absolution, and pardon judicially and absolutely, is 
placing his vile carcass " in the throne and temple of God, calling himself God !" That 
miscreant who pretends to grant absolution ; and who gravely sells indulgences for 
money, does "traffic in men's souls ;" and has the insufferable daring of the atheist to 
call men away from the Lord Jesus Christ ; to call men away from his one, only, and 
perfect atonement; to call men away from his only availing intercession, to his own 
infinitely degraded system of chicanery ; his miserable sj^stem of trading in souls for 
pounds, shillings, and pence ! The infinity of this littleness, and matchless bathos, 
is surpassed only by its matchless atheism ! Over the whole pages of the Bible, this 
one great, and all pervading doctrine is spread out, and made most manifest to all, that 
Almighty God alone pardons sin: that he does it to the believer, only, for Christ's 
sake ; that he cannot, and will not, deny his justice, insult his purity, or degrade his 
Eternal Son, by accepting of any human merit, or any human works, to fill up 
the measure of his all perfect atonement. And, hence, these words of Jehovah, 
which are the summary of the gospel : " /, even /, am he that hlotteth out your tranS" 
gressions for mine oivn sake ; and will not remember thy sins.'" Isaiah xliii. 25, 

We may sum up the scripture argument thus. The divine law required no human 
penance; no works, to procure pardon of sin; nothing but the sacrifice only ; and that 
pointed to Christ's atonement. If God pardon sin for his own name's sake, then he 
does it, not for the sake of any sinful man, or impure priest. If the lamb of God takes 
away the sin of the world, then no sinner — far less an impious priest, can do it. We 
"are saved through faith ; by grace; not of ourselves; not of works." Eph, ii. 8, 9. 
Then is there no place for penance, none for merits, or ghostly buying, and selliuo- ! 
" God gives us, along with Christ, freely, all things." Rom. vih. 32. And, hence, 
he not only grants us the remission of sins, but remits the punishment, temporal and 
eternal also. Hence, there is no room for penance, or the impious intrusion of 
a priest's absolution. Christ " trode the wine press alone ; and of the people 
there was none with him," None could be associated with him: none "could bo 
baptised wliii his baptism :" "he is God : beside him there is no Savior ! " His was 
the only name under heaven, by which we cai| be saved." Hence there is no place 
for saintly intercession, nor penance, nor ghostly imposition of absolvings from sin ! 

The case of the woman convicted of adultery, (John viii,,) affords us a demonstrar 
lion on this point. If ever our Lord had ordained penance, here it would have been 
enforced. " J3ut H(; retiuired of her no penance^ no satisfaction for her great sin. He 
only scaled his pardon to her, iuid dismissed her saying, 'Go and sin no more !' 
Hence no satisfaction lor sin by us is required in the scriptures." Luther. 

The saints in heaven were saved by Christ's merits only; and their song of "-rati^ 
tude is the everlasting admissioa that they had no merits of their own. They had 
nothing but what they received of grace. And in reference to their obedience to the 
law as a rule of fife, tha^, law requires absolute perfection, and spotless \nm\\, ia 
soul, in tongue, and in the whole moral dei)ortnient. 

Now the saints arc far from having any merits over and above all (he rtvpiiroments 
vf the law of God, as your priests, tempting the i»aiiencc o{ heaven, do im^i aud-i- 

30* 



r222 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

clously, affirm. They do not, in this life, even come up to the smallest requirements 
of the pure and spotless standard of moral duty. ''In many things," says the highest 
authority, "they offend all." Jas. iii. 2. Hence, fellow citizens, there is no truth in, 
nor even the slightest foundation for the ludicrous fiction of priestcraft, that the saints' 
merits, composed of the materials of all that perfect obedience, in word, deed, and 
ihought, which they render to God, over and above all that his holy law requires, are 
carefully collected and laid up in a golden heap, in the pope's treasury ; and that the 
pope keeps the key of this same treasury : and graciously, and very disinterestedly 
sells out for pounds, shillings, and pence, the merchandise of the merits of the saints, 
under the name onndulgences and ahsolutions ! This profitable ghostly manufactory 
has by the wretched ignorance, and infinite degradation of all popish nations, been 
ilie pope's grand mint ! At this he has coined more money, counterfeit coin I admit, 
in his traffic in souls, than has been coined at the Mint of the United States ; or at 
the Mint of England ! For he has had a brisk and uninterrupted trade in souls, and 
indulgences, for more than twelve centuries I I 'What devoted followers they are of 
laeir founders, Judas and Simon Magus ! ! 

Let us now conduct you to the Fathers. St. Augustine speaks in the strongest 
terms, against the judicial powers of priests, or any man to forgive sins. Having 
([uoted the passage out of John xx. 23, and solved some difficulties, he goes on, thus : 
" Whose sins ye remit, t]ie\' are remitted, &c. But since these words are introduced, 
when he had said thi^, he breathed on them and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost ; and then 
was conferred on them the remission, or retention of sin, it is sufficiently evident that 
they themselves did not do this; but the Hoi}- Spirit, by their ag*ency, as he said in 
another place ; It is not you that speak, but the Holy Spirit who is in you. See Aug. 
Oper. Tom. ix. Lib. 2, p. 42. Contra. Epist. PaiTnen. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1685. 
Again, — " Peccasti, &c. Hast thou offended thy brother ? Make satisfaction to him." 
These satisfactions in private and public we admit: but satisfaction to God, neither 
he nor we acknowledge." See, in Math. Serm. 16, De Poenit. cap. ]0. 

St. Jerome says: "The bishops and presbyters not understanding that passage, 
assume to themselves something of the arrogance of the pharisees, so far as to imagine 
that they may condemn ihe innocent, and absolve the guilty ; whereas with God, it 
is not the sentence of the priests, but the life of the guilt}^ that is looked into." Then 
having quoted the case of the priests and the leper under the law, he adds, — "In the 
same manner, as the priest, there, made a man clean or unclean,'' (that is, declared 
them clean or unclean) "so, here, the bishop or presbyter binds or loosens, not those 
who are innocent or guilty, but officially, when he has heard the nature of their sins 
he knows who are to be bound, and who, to be loosed." Oper. Tom. vi. in Math. 16. 

St. Chrysostom in one place, speaks strongly against this power of forgiving sins 
judicially: "To forgive sins truly, indeed, is possible with God only." On ] Cor. 
15. Homil. 40. Tom. v. Mogunt. Edit. p. 451. And against auricular confession, he 
says: " Ai'a tovto &c. For this reason, I beseech thee and pray thee, to confess 
continually to God. For I do not bring thee into the theatre of thy fellow servants, 
nor do I call on thee to discover thy sins to men. Uncover your consciences to 
God ; and show him your wounds ; and seek a cure from him." Hom. 5, De incomp. 
Nat. Dei. Par. Edit. 1621. And his Homil. De Pcenit, et Confess. Tom. v. Laf. 
Edit, he says — " It is not necessary to confess your sins to witnesses, — let God 
alone, see thee confessing." And farther, in speaking against the forgiving of sins by 
priests, he says vehemently: " Ku -t &c. And why do I speak of the priests? 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 223 

Neither angel nor archangel can perform any of the things which are given from 
God. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost administer all things. The priest furnishes 
his tongue, and lends his hands." Horn. 86, on John xx., Lat. Edit. Basil, 1539. I 
am fully aware that this Father advances a sentiment, in his De Sacerdote, quite 
opposed to the above : and quite opposed to the sentence above, taken from St. Je- 
rome. But I leave it to your priests to quote that, to help on my cause by setting 
this Father in arms against himself; and against St. Jerome; and against the 
unanimous consent ! 

St. Ambrose thus writes : " To you, he says, I will give the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven, that you may bind and loose." " What is said to Peter is said to the 
apostles." In Psal. 38, Tom. i. p. 858; Paris Edit, of 1690. Again : "Ecce quia, 
&c. Behold I truly, sins are pardoned by the Holy Spirit. But men hrmg a ministry 
for the remission of sins; they do not exercise the right of any power." De Spir. 
Sane. Lib 3. c. 18. Again : " Sine peccato, &c. No one is without sin, but God 
alone." "Also, no one pardons sin but God only, because it is written, who can par- 
don sins, but God alone?" De Spir. Sand, ut supra. 

Pope Gregory I. the saint^ who lived before your modern popes and priests had 
invented the prominent and facetious fictions of your system, thus writes against the 
judicial power of the priests to forgive sins ; " Thou who alone sparest, who alone 
forgivest sins. For who can forgive sins but God only !" Greg. Expos. 2, in Sep- 
tem Psalmos Pcenit. Bened. Edit. Paris, 1705. Finch, Controv. p. 240. Thus, 3'our 
pope and saint, Gregory, overthrows the main pillar of your priestcraft ! 

St. Basil says : " EX^^ro &c. Let the true lawgiver come, the powerful Savior : 
he alone having the power to forgive sins." Comment, in Isai. cap. 6. 

St. Hilary, in 358, thus writes : " Verum enim, &c.^, But it is true that no one can 
forgive sins, but God alone. Therefore it is God who forgives sins : but no one for- 
gives but God." On Math. Con. 8, Paris Edit, of 1652. 

To the same purpose writes St. Cyprian, De Lapsis, sec. 7. Edit, of Oxford, 1682. 
And St. Cyril speaks thus decidedly against the modern fanaticism and extra- 
vagance of popes and priests ; — " He only, who is by nature God, has the power of 
absolving from their sins. For whom does it befit to release the violators of the law, 
but the author of the law himself?" See much more of this forcible ^^Titer, who con- 
demns your priests, in all their impious system. Comment, in Johan. lib. 12, Tom. 
iv. p. 1101. Paris Edit. 1638. 

Finally, Clemens Alexandrinus, in A. D. 250 thns writes ; for he and all his 
associates knew nothing of popery in those days : the prince of hell, and the popes 
had not yet matured the lie. " Ma tovto hovos Wherefore, he alone who was appointed 
to be our Master, by the Father of all, — can forgive sins : since he alone can distin- 
guish betvv'een obedience and disobedience." Paidag. Lib. 1. cap. 8. p. 116. Paris 
Edit, of 1641. 

I have dwelt longer on these topics, than 1 had anticipated : but I was anxious to open 
to your view the solemn testimony, and sentence of condemnation, i)assed by the scrip- 
tures and the Fathers on some of the most important dogmas of the church of Rome. 
He u'/jo prays to the Virgin Mary, and goes to a priest to confess his sins and receive 
judicial pardon, is doing what the sainted Fathers condemn in the very strongest 
terms ; and what Almighty God forbids by the mouth of his prophets and apostles. 
Hence he who persists in praying to the Virgin Mary, and seeks absolution from a 
sacerdotal impostor, is a rebel against the " unanimous cofisenV of Fathers, is at war 



a^A ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

with Almighty God, who alone can pardon sin; and, as an idolater, is in deadly 
peril of damnation! Sec the 14th Homily of the Episcopal church, entitled, On the 
Peril of Idolatry. The language which I have all along used, is feeble in comparison 
with that of this honest, and truly apostolical Homily of the Episcopal church. And 
here, by the way, let me observe for the bemjit of the present generation, that of all the 
writers that have entered the lists, in English, against the Roman Antichrist, none 
are more intelligent, more forcible, more violent and invincible, than the Episcopal 
writers. I need only name Archbishop Usher, bishop Jeremy Taylor, bishop 
Hall, Chillingworth, the immortal Willet (Synopsis Papismi, folio,) and all the rest 
of the old genuine Calvinistic Fathers of the Episcopal church of England. For 
there were giants in those days .' 

Oct. 5, 1833. I am, fellow citizens, yours &c. 

" W. C. B. 

P. S. Permit me, here, to record an historical fact, which throws a new and unex- 
i)ected light on two prominent attributes of Holy Mother, and the pope: namely, their 
immutability, and the pope's power to dispense, thereby making that which was sin by 
law, to be no sin. The fact is this : — only a few days ago, it was a mortal sin in a 
Roman catholic, to eat flesh on Saturdays. This mortal sin was defined by an infal- 
lible law of immutable Rome ! 

But bishop England, just arrived from Rome, has promulged the immutable decree 
by which the former immutable decree is done away. The pope has made that 
which was lately a mortal sin, to be now no sin. The simple faithful are permitted to 
indulge freely, of a Saturday, in beef, pork, and mutton, henceforth, without sin, or 
any damage to a tender conscience, all the former immutable laws of infallible Rome 
to the contrary, notwithstanding. 

This, fellow citizens, you ought to hail as one step towards your emancipation from 
the yoke of a cruel foreign despotism ! You will, next, be allowed to eat meat on 
Fridays also ! 

W. C. B. 



LETTER Xm. 

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Popery condemned by the Scriptures and the Fathers. 

But the unfaithful priest, what tongue 



Enough shall execrate ? His doctrine may 

Be passed, tho' mixed widi most unhallowed leaven, 

That proved, to those who foolishly partook, 

Eternal bitterness."' Pollok. 

Fellow Citizens: — Bigotry and fanaticism possess singular attributes.' In all 
lands where they have the ascendency, they answer arguments by sending their op- 
])onents to the gibbet, and the stake. These are their last and only arguments in 
}X)pish lands. But in Protestant countries where they are chained up, like the tiger, 
they rail at all discussions of their religion and pretensions, as " arrant persecution." 
And they whine and fret under unanswerable argument, a*s "the ungodly raillery of 
tJhe reprobate !" And, finally, when driven from the field, by the force of truth, they 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 225 

hire the anonymous scribbler, who sells himself for a morsel of bread, to abuse the 
character of their opponents, and even invade the decencies of family, and social 
order. The late controversy of your priests, and the Saturday columns of the Ro- 
man kennel press, notwithstanding his late castigation, afford us painful evidences of 
the truth of this. 

My fellow citizens, — I attack not the religion of your fathers. This charge against 
us, is one of the sore evils under the sun, engendered by priestcraft, and propagated 
by their kennel press. Their cry is, — "Will any thing persuade you to forsake the 
religion of your fathers ? Will you listen to one, who would seduce you from your 
fathers' religion?" What impostors ! What imposition ! Now hear me. You had 
fathers who lived under the benign influence of the genuine christian religion, before 
your priests, and the popes had completed the invention of the novel fiction of popery. 
Whether you come from Ireland, or France, or Scotland, or Spain, — your ancient 
forefathers enjoyed Christianity long before popery was born, or swaddled by the 
popes. There was pure Christianity in Ireland, in Scotland, and in Spain, long be- 
fore the ])opish emissaries invaded these countries, and reduced your later forefathers 
to its abominations. In my Letter VIII. I have proved that, during the first sLx hund- 
red years, there was not one that was properly a papist. Your ancient fathers held 
the same opinions in religion, that are now held by Protestants. Your later ancestors 
were seduced by a heartless band of ghostly impostors, into the atheistical principles 
of popery; just as the children of tlie Seven churches of Asia have been reduced by 
the Turks into Islomism. Now, what would you think of those modtrn Turks, the 
children of christians, who, when urged and entreated to forsake Mohammed, and be- 
come christians, would reply, — " Will you dare to seduce us from Islamism, the reli- 
gion of our fathers?" Would you not urge upon them that their more ancient fa- 
thers were true christians, — and that they ought to cast off the imposture of Moliam- 
med, and become what their fathers once were ! 

Now I am doing notliing more than this. Your ancient, and well informed fathers, 
in Ireland, Spain, France, Scotland, England, — were true christians, before the 
emissaries of popery overran these lands. We are imploring you, by the fear of Al- 
mighty God, and the bowels of mercy, in the Lord Jesus, to return to the pure, and 
holy religion of 3-our forefathers ; and cast off the impostures, and fictions of popery ! 
Reject, with abhoiTcncc, the novelty of popery : — return to the ancient, pure, primi- 
tive Christianity of your forefathers, as it is found in the holy Bible. Should a sedu- 
ced child of the ancient Greek church, believe his Turkish deceivers, or the solemn 
voice of Christianity calling him back to the Christianity of his fathers ! Should you 
rather believe the ghostly deceivers who trade in 3'our souls and bodies ; and who in- 
vented })oi)ery fjr this traffic, — than the deeply solemn voice of truth summoning 
you back to the religion of Jesus, as held by your forefathers ? 

But I shall now go on with my discussion. 

Seventh : Your priests' leading tenet that the holy Scriptures are not the Rule of 
faith is deism ; and is condemned by the Scrijjtures and the Fathers. 

Tile arguments on the divinity, and perfection of the Bible, as the only rule of 
faith, I need not here repeat. Sullice it to say that Ahnighty God has given his 
holy Word for this one unique i)urpose, — namely, the only rule of faith. And has 
moreover, pronounced it perfect. '* The law of God is perfect, convirling the soul ; 
the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, the statutes of the LorJ 
are right, rejoicing the heart ; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlighteniufj 



226 ROMAN CATHOLIC COTROVERST. 

the eyes: the judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether." Psalm xix. 
'* All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, for iastruction in righteousness ; that the man of God may be perfect, 
thoroughly furnished unto all good icorArs." And, finally, the apostle says to Timo- 
thy. — ''from a child thou hast known the scriptures," — he says not "the traditions," 
''the unanimous consent of uninspired men," — but ""(he scriptures, which are able to 
make you ivise unto salvation, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.'" 2 Tim. iii. 
15. 17. 

Now hear the Fathers who condemn the modem system of the infidel priesthood, 
on this matter. 1. St. Hilary, in the 4th century says — " Fidem, &c. Do you seek 
the faith, O Emperor ! Hear it then, not from new writings, but from the books of 
God.'' To Cons. Aug. p. 244. Paris Edit. 1652. Again,— "Qufe Scripta, &c. let 
us read the things that are written, and let us understand what we have read : and 
then we shall fully discharge a perfect faith." De Trinit. Lib. 8. 

2. Basil in 369 says, — " ^^lepa &c. It is a manifest falling from the faith, 
and a crime of the greatest pride, to desire to take away from the scriptures, or to in- 
troduce any thing that is not written. For Christ says that his sheep hear his voice, 
and not the voice of another." Sermo De Fide p. 294. Tom. ii. Bened. Edit. Paris, 
1722. Again : — To yap upas &c. It is right and necessary that every one should 
leara what is useful from the holy scriptures, to furnish the mind with greater piety, 
and also in order not to be accustomed to human traditions.'' Reg. Brev. Resp. 95. in 
Tom. ii. p. 449. 

3. Tertullian, who lived in the close of the second century, says : — " Scriptum, &c. 
Let the school of Ilermogenes show that it is written : if it is not written, let them 
fear the curse directed against those who add or diminish." Adv. Herm. p. 241. Paris 
Edit. 1671. 

4. St. Ambrose in the close of the 4th century says: — '-Quae in Scripturis, &:c. 
How can we adopt those things which we do not find in the holy scriptures?" De 
Ofl[ic. Minist. Tom. ii. Lib. 1. Paris Edit. 1690. Hear him on traditions, — Again, — 
" Lego, &c. I read that he is first, I do not read that he is second : let those who say 
that he is second, teach it by reading.^' De instaur. Virg. Lib. 1. 

5. St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, in A. D. 386, thus wrote : — Tovroiv rag &c. Of those 
books (the Canon of Scripture) "read two and twenty; but have nothing to do with 
the Apocryplia, — ^r^csv ex^ koivov, — ^have nothing in common with them." Cat. 4. 
Oxf. Edit. 1703. Again: — "Aciyap, &c. Not even the least of the divine and 
holy mysteries of the faith, ought to be handed down without the divine scriptures." 
MriSe eiioi &c. Do not simply give faith to me speaking these things to you except 
you have the proof of ivhat I say, from the divine scriptures. For the security and 
preservation of our faith are not supported by ingenuity of speech, but by the proof of 
the divine Scriptures." Cat. 4. p. 56. 

6. St. Cyril, of Alexandria, in the beginning of the 5th century, tlius condemns 
the priests' fictions, and deism ; — O yap 6vk &c. For how shall we receive, and 
reckon among the things that are true that which the divine scripture has not 
spoken ?" Glaph. in Genes. Lib. 2 Paris Edit, of 1638. 

7. St. Athanasius, — a name suflficient in itself to be weighed against all the popes 
and priests whom antichrist has ever canonized, or named, — thus wTites, — " Ei roivw 
&-C. If then ye are the disciples of the gospel, speak not unrighteously against 
God ; but walk in the things that are larittefi. But if you will speak any thing be» 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 227 

sides that which is written, why do you contend with us, who are determined neither 
to hear, nor to speak any thing but that which is written? The Lord himself says, if 
ye continue in my word, ye are truly free." De Incarn. Christi, Paris Edit, of 1627. 
And again : — " AvrapKsis &c. For the holy and divinely inspired scriptures are, of 
themselves, sufficient for the discovery of divine truth." Orat. Cont. Gentes. 

8. Ori^en speaks thus admirably, in condemniiig your priests' errors : — "As all 
gold, whatsoever it be, that is without the temple, is not holy ;, even so every sense, 
which is without the divine scripture, however admirable it may appear to some, is 
not holy, because it is foreign to the scripture.'" See his 25 Homil. in Math. Lat. 
Edit. Basil, 1571. Again; "Consider how imminent their danger is, ivho neglect 
to study the scriptures, in which alone the discernment of this can he ascertained.''^ 
Lib. X. cap. 16. in Rom. Basil Edit. 

9. From St. Chrysostom I could copy an entire column of noble sentiments, con- 
demning the deism, and sacrilege of your priests, who dare in the face of heaven, to 
deny the holy scriptures, to be the rule of faith : and prohibit the use of them to the 
lay community. I shall copy a few extracts from this Greek father; — "What need 
is there of a homily ? All things are intelligible and straight in the divine scrip- 
ture : all things that are necessary are clear /" Homil. 3. in 2 Thess. ii.,Mentz. Edit. 
Again, in his Homily on the text, — " Let the word of Christ dwell in you richty," — 
he says, "Hear, — how he enjoins you in particular (viz. the man "in business, and 
who governs a wife and children,") "to know the scripture, and not lightly, nor, as 
it may happen, but with great diligence." "If you will have nothing else, get the 
New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Gospels, as your constant teach- 
ers.^^ " Ignorance of the scriptures is the cause of all evil : we go unarmed, to the 
battle." Hom. 9. inEpist. ad Coloss. 3; Tom. vi. : Mentz Edit. How utterly does 
this eminent Father and saint overthrow the deism, and the impious fictions of 
popery ! And is there one intelhgent member of the Roman catholic church, so tho- 
roughly priest-ridden, as to yield his faith and conscience to the keeping of a bigotted 
and ignorant priest, who can count beads, and mutter jjater nosters, — it may be, but 
who is utterly ignorant of the Bible, and of the Fathers ? Is there a human being, 
endowed with reason, who would yield himself to the guidance of such men, in pre- 
ference to St. Chrysostom? In his Sermons on Lazarus, he removes, and scatters 
to the winds, all the objections of your infidel priests, wiio dv;ny the use of the scrip- 
tures to the plain and unlettered. He enumerates the objections of " tradesmen," 
and " business men," — he then goes on, — "I am engaged in the things of this life ; 
it is not for me to read the scriptures, but for those who have taken a farewell of the 
world, who dwell on the tops of mountains, and live constantly after that fashion. 
What say est thou, O man ? Is it not thy business to study the scriptures, because 
thou art distracted with a thousand cares ? It is thine nmch more than it is theirs, 
&c." 

Your priests, to sustain their imposture of keeping the Bible out of your hands, 
usually corrupt the translation of our Savior's words, — Search the scriptures. Tliey 
render it thus, — " Ye do search ;" and thence take away our Lord's command. Now 
iiear Chrysostom on this text. "He did not say. Read, — hut, Epswan, — search ye 
the scriptures, since the things that are said of him recpiire much research. For this 
reason he commands them to dig with diligence, that they may discover the things 
that lie deep." Hom. 40. in Job. cap. 5. 

In his Serm. 53, De Utiiit. Lect. Scrip, he declares that in all lauds, in the east 



228 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

and west, ami south, all men read, and reasoned out of the scriptures. On the noted 
text "all scripture is given by inspiration of God," — he thus reasons: "the man of 
God could not be perfect without the scriptures. In the place of me, says he, you 
have the scriptures ; if you desire to learn any thing, you may therein do so. But if 
he wrote this to Timothy, who was filled with the Holy Ghost, how much more did 
he write this to us ?" Homil. 9, in 2 Tim. &c. Mentz Edit. Tom. xii. p. 602. Did 
your priests retain the power of feeling compimction in their seared consciences, or 
possess the characteristic attribute which lingers, to the last, in fallen humanity, — the 
faculty of blushing iinikr crimsoned guilt, — assuredly this doctrine of the Greek Father 
would make them blush, and even writhe under his inflictions! 

I cannot resist another extract from this father, in which he answers the objections 
of sacerdotal deism alledged against the obscurity of the Bible. It is true, no priest 
has ever been so stupid, as to beheve what he daily affirms, on this point. For 
every man, })ossessing the least intellect, cannot but know that the Bible, as a book, 
is plainer, clearer, and more easily understood, than any one of all the canons, rules, 
and fictions over the breadth and length of poper}^ ! But hear St. Chr^'sostom : after 
having answered the objection. How can I understand them ? — he thus goes on ; " It is 
impossible that you, alone, should be ignorant of every thing. For this cause the 
grace of the Holy Ghost has arranged, that publicans, fishermen, tent-makers, and 
shepherds, and goat herds, and common, and unlearned men, should compose the 
books (of the scriptures) in order that no one of the common people may be able to 
fly to this pretence ; and that the things declared may be understood by all ; so that 
the artisan, the servant, the poor widow, and the most imlearned of all men, may be 
profited by the hearing." 

A gam : " The knowledge of the scriptures is a powerful defence against sin ; while 
the ignomnce of them is a deep precipice, — a profound gulph ! It is a great betraying 
of salvation to know nothing of the di\ane laws ! This it is, which has given birth to 
heresies; and has caused the corruption of morals, &c." " He therefore, who does 
not use the scriptures, but entereth" (as your pope and priests do) "by some other 
way, (namely by tradition,) cutting out for himself a way contrary to the prescribed 
way, — He is the thief!'' De Lazar, Concio. 3, Paris edit, of 1621. 

10. Let me next refresh you out of St. Jerome : "The church of Christ possessing 
churches in all the world, is united by the unity of the Spirit; and has the cities of 
the law, the prophets, the gospel, and the apostles. She has not gone forth from her 
boundaries, — that is from the holy scriptures /" Oper. Tom. v, p. 334 comment, in 
Mich. lib. i. cap. 1, Paris Edit, of 1602. How completely have your priests and pre- 
lates "gone forth from her boundaries," when they absolutely reject the scriptures 
altogether, as " the rule ;" and have built the novel system of popery upon traditions, 
and the dreams, and visions, of uninspired saints ! 

11. I close with extracts from St. Augustine : " Civitas Dei, &c. The city of God 
detests doubts, as the madness of the Academicians : for she believes the holy scrip- 
tures of the Old, and New Testaments, which we call canonical ; whence our faith is 
derived ; by which the just lives ; and b}^ means of which we walk without wavering." 
De Civit. Lib. 19, cap. 18, Tom. vii. Bened. Edit. Paris 1685. Again: — "Licet, si 
nos, &c. If we^ and he added immediately what follows, or an angel from heaven^ 
declare unto you any gospel, besides that which ye have received, in the legal and 
evangelical scriptures, let him be accursed."' Now, note this every one of you. Here, 
St. Paul, and St. Augustine pronounce heaven's terrific fulminations on your priests^ 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONfTROVERSY-. S2§ 

Gild their whole system, who in common with deists, banish the holy scriptures; ex- 
clude from theirchapels and altars the gospel of Jesus ; and introduce " a new gospel,'* 
which Jesiis never revealed, and which Paul and the Fathers never heard of, nor 
conceived ! See above in Aug. 0,per. Tom. ix. p. 302. Lib. 3. Contra, ix- Liter. 
Petit. Edit, .Supra. 

Again :— »" Who is ignorant that the canonical scriptures of the Old and New Tes- 
taments, are contained in certain limits : and that it is to he preferred -to all the S2ibse- 
■quent writings of bishops ; so that no man can doubt, or dispute about it, Vvheiher 
whatsoever is written in it, be true, and right, &c." He then goes on, at length, to 
show that all human writings, aiid councils, are to be amended by this holy standard; 
in fact, he places the authority of scripture abov« all that is human, and uninspired, 
^ee Tom. ix. p. .98. Bened. Edit. Paris 1694. 

In fine, he thus writes, — "In things openly set forth in the scriptures, all things 
are to be found, which comprise faith and moral conduct." De Doctr. Christ. See 
Tom. iii. Lib. 2. cap. 9. 

And so far is St. Augustine from admitting the authority of the church to determine 
and fix the authority of the holy scriptures, as the Roman catholics do, — that he de- 
clares that it is in the divinely inspired .'Bible that "we must seek the church." He 
declares that the holy church is proved not by human documents, but by the divine 
oracles." And it was impossible that St. Augustine could be guilty, with 3^our super- 
ficial priests, of reasoning i?i a circle, and thence proving the authority of the Bible 
from the church. >See Aug. Oper. Tom. ix.341. Ik Unit. Eccles. cap. 3. 

If the priests can produce out of his pages, a contradiction to these passages, I shall 
■be obliged to them. They will thereby aid me in destroying their doctrine of the 
unanimous consent. — Thus, fellow citizens, I have redeemed my .pledge given to my 
late opponents, the priests, that I would, in the proper place, produce eleven o^ their 
best fathers against their anti- christian rule of faith: — and on behalf of our Protest- 
£int rule of faith, the holy scriptures. 

I am, fellow vcitizens, yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



LETTER XIV. 

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATH0I.IC CHtRCH> 

Popery condemned by Scripture and the Fathers. 

"Fori testify, — that if any man sliall add to the words of the prophecy of this book, 
God shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book." 

Jesus Christ, Rev. xxii. 18. 

Fellow Citizens : — In pursuing my argument on the condemnation of the Ro- 
man catholic church, 1 solicit your attention to another fatal error: it is this: 

Eighth : — The impiety of your pope and priests adding the apocryphal books to the 
sacred canon of scripture, is condemned by scripture, and tlie Fathers. These books, 
bound up in some of our Bibles, commencing with Esdras, and ending with Mae- 
cabees, — your priests with an affectation of gravity, impose on their simple flocks, as 
"•the word of God.'" This I call, unceremoniously^ "•uttering a falsehood in the 
namt^ and under the very ei/e of the Almighty .'" I beg of you to be atssured, fcllovr 

Hi 



230 ROaiAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

citizens, that the authors of these Tracts, did never even indulge the tliought of lay- 
ing claim to divine inspiration. They were not sent of Gotl : they no where affirm 
this ; their writings have none of the evidence of their divine mission, as prophets : 
they abound with imtrility, Jilthiness, errors, and glaring contradictions. Let me only 
direct your attention to the fictions about the angel's grave recommendation to make a 
smoke out of the heart and liver of a fish, to frighten away devils out of men ! Tobit. ch. 
vi. 7. and viii. 3 ; and the disgusting fiction about Tobit's losing his sight. And, in the 
close of Maccabees, the author has not only disavowed all guidance of divine inspir^^ 
tion, but even apologises for his deficiencies. And his errors are numerous and even 
ludicrous. For instance, he puts Antiochus three times to death, by three different 
kinds of death ! See 1 Mac. vi. 16. And 2 Mac. 1. 15. 16. And ch. 9. And, 
finally, the author was so ignorant of the law of Moses, and the custom of the Jews, 
that he actually represents Judas offering acceptably, ajid with applause, sacrifices to 
the dead, — a thing never commanded by the law; and never done by the Jews, while 
tliey were the faithful people of God. And yet, fellow citizens, this ludicrous error 
is the only cause and reason of this book being admitted into the canon by the Ro- 
man catholic priests ! It countenances their prayers and sacrifices for the dead ! 

Now hear the testimony of the Fathers. Your priests do not even pretend that the 
Fathers of the Jewish church ever received these books into their canon. All the 
Jewish saints and fathers, are, therefore, unanimously against them. So are the 
best of your own Fathers, and saints. 

Origen, in his list of canonical books, omits all the apocryphal books. See hi« 
Commentary on Psal. 1. And Euseb. Lib. 6. cap. 25. 

St. Athanasius, in his " Synopsis of the sacred scriptures," gives a list of the can*- 
onical books, as we have them ; and adds, at the close of the list of the Old Testa- 
ment, these words, — "There are other books of the Old Testament, besides these, 
which are not canonical.''^ And having recited the principal books^ of the Apocrypha, he 
adds, — ToixavTa Kai ra, &c. Thcse, and such like, are not canonical.-'' Synops. Sacr. 
Script. Paris Edit. 1627. 

St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, enumerating the canon, adds, — " but have nothing to do 
with the Apocrypha." This he wnrote in the close of the 4th century. See Cyr. Cat. 
Oxf. Edit. 170a 

St. Jerome specifics the apocryphal works of the Old Testament, aud certain forged 
works of the New Testament times, and says, — "these are not canonical, — non sunt 
canonci — but are called by the ancients ecclesiastical : — " all of which they thought 
fit to be read in churches but not brought forward for the confirmation of the faith.^^ 
See Oper. Tom. ix. p. 186. Symbol Riiffini. Paris Edit. 1602. Again, — having enu- 
merated the true canonical books, he adds, — " Q,uidquid extra hos, &lc. Whatsoever 
is without these, is to be placed among the apocrypha. Therefore, Wisdom, com- 
monly called the wisdom of Solomon, and iheBook of Jesvs^ the son of Sirach, and 
Judith, and Tobit, &c. are not in the Canon." See his Pref. to the book of Kings : 
Tom. iii. Lib. 24. — I refer you, also, to Jerome's Preface to Daniel; he there calls 
the story of "Bell and the Dragon, mere fables." So also does St. Augustine, in 
his work, De Mirabil. cap. 32. lib. 2. 

St. Cyprian having enumerated the true canonical books, says : " Sciendum est, 
t^c. It must be known that there are other books, besides these, not canonical, but 
ecclesiastical, so called, as Wisdom, &c." See his work. In Symbolum. 

St Augustine goes all the length of St. Jerome against the apocrypha. His re- 



R0MA{7 CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



261 



mark on Judith is a specimen :— " The Jews are said not to have received it into the 
canon of the scriptures ; and it is of small authority to strengthen any doctrine that 
Cometh into question." De Civit. Dei. 18. 26. 

The council of Laodicea, canon .59, and 60, declared the fixed canon of scripture, 
enumerating all the books of holy writ; and leaving out the apocrypha. See Sacr. 
Concil. Labbaei.et Cossartii. Tom. i. Paris Edit. 1671. 

I am fully aware that your priests are in the habit of supposing three testimonies 
in opposition to this council of Laodicea, and to these testimonies of the Fathers, 
against their canon of faith; namely, the decree of the council of Carthage, and of 
two later Roman councils. These they quote as favoring the apocrypha. 

Now, shall I say that this betrays imposture, or sheer ignorance ? Mark the true 
state of the case. Every one of your priests has access to the Decretals and Canons. 
The council of Laodicea was ratified and confirmed by the canons of the Roman 
church. In proof of this, see Decret. p. i. Dist. 16. cap. 11. Nay, it was, also, sol- 
emnly confirmed by the sixth General council. Canon 2. as Gratian also witnesses ; 
See Decret. p. i. Dist. 16. cap. 7. Hence the sixth General council became respon- 
sible, or rather, re-enacted what that of Laodicea had enacted. And now, are your 
priests so exceedingly ignorant of their own canon law, that they do not know that 
the pope is sworn solemnly, to observe the Eight General Councils : of which the 
Trulkme was the sixth ? Hence your pope is sworn ^o sustain the decision of the council 
of Laodicea, which excludes the ayocnjfha! ! And if you, and he do not, you perjure 
your souls, and bring on you a mortal sin! The proof the pope's oath and vow to do 
this, you can see in Decret. Par. 1. Dist. 16. cap. 8. — And, moreover, every scholar 
knows that it was decreed in the council of Constance, Session 39 : and in ibe council 
of Basil, Session 38, that " the newly elected pope should take his oath not to violate the 
faith of the eight General Councils. Here is the fullest and plainest historical evi^. 
dence given, that in swearing to sustain the faith of the eight General Councils, the 
jwpe and all yonr priests, are pledged under the penalty of mortal sin, to sustain the 
faith of the Laodicean council. Hence every pope, and 'very bishop, and every Ro- 
mish priest, are bound by their oath, to reject the apocrypka ! If your priests, and 
popes do not, then are they perjured men ! But of truth and verity it is, that the 
pope, bishops, and priests do cling to the apocrypha ! ! Therefore,, they stand con- 
victed before the pubhc,and the christian world, as perJwretZ men, 6e/bye God and man! 

This is not all. By thus setting up council against council, each of which was 
sustained by a pope, your priests have ruined and annihilated their infallibility and 
immutability ! ! Alas! poor Rome! And, yet, this is not all. I have the testimony 
of Gregory I. pope and saint, against the apocrypha, and against the council of 
Carthage, held in 397, and confirmed by pope Innocent I. ; and by the other two 
Roman councils. Pope St. Gregory fiourisbed in the close of the sixth century. He 
declares that the Maccabees belong not to the canon: — Here are his own words:, — 
" De qua re, &.C. Concerning which thing, we do nothing irregularly,, if we adduce 
a testimony from the books which, although not canonical, are i)ublished for tlie edifi- 
cation of the people," &c. He then quotes from the books 7iot canonical, namely, — 
the Maccabees, — the account of Elea^cr, 1 Mac. vi. 46. wounding and killing the ele- 
phant, and perishing under the falling animal. Greg. Mor. Lib. 19. in Job 39. Bened. 
Edit. Paris, 1705. Hence, St. Gregory, the pope and saint, was perfectly ^tono with 
St. Jerome, and St. Augustine, in declaring against the ai)ocrypha; and^ therefore, 
g^amst your popes and priests,;— in $ol.cin.ijly coQ.demning yoijir rul« of iiiith ; whicli 



232 



ROHTAN CATHOLIC C0ilVTK0TER3T. 



embraces these human fictions, and additions to God's holy word'! — Inowle^n'e my 
earnest appeal with the American public, if I have not succeeded by the aid of the 
Romish weapons, to pull down this, tl^ main pillar of their heathen temple! 

I am,, fellow citizens, vours, &3» 
W. C. ^v 



LETTER XY. 

•ro THE 3IEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHFRCH=. 

Popery condemned hy the Scrfptures and the Fathers. 

*^ Though contradicted every da)' by facts^ 

That sophistry itself woidd stumble o'er, 

And to the very teeth a liar proved, — 

She cries, — Head tfie smoothest tcay to heaxcn ! 

Ah ! none return that went witli her: the dead" 

Are in her house, her guests in depths- of hell. 

She weaves the winding sheet of souls ; and lays 

Them in the urn of everlasting death .^" PolloTi. 

FelloW" CrTizEiys: — I have now reached v^hat one justly called the gold£5' 
doctrines of your priests, and the master-pieces of their superhuman invention ; — doc- 
trines dear to every Roman priest's heart, and fondW adhered to, as the sublimest, 
and most longed after, in the whole cherished system of Holy Mother, — for the best of 
all reasons; they bring into the ghostly treasury the steadiest and greatest revenues, 
in their brisk traffic in "human souls !" I mean transubstantiation, the mass, and 
pwgatory. I shall devote my attention to each of them, before I retire from the field. 
What I intend, is a brief sketch of each, showing the public that these are infamoas- 
fictions condemned by scripture and ev^en by your Fathers. And may I beg you to 
follow me in this iinportant discussion? I do not war against the pure christianit}' of 
your forefathers. I war againt the novelty of popery, which your ancient forefathers 
neither believed, nor even knew. 

Why are A'ou so slow to receive instruction, and our warnings against your greatest 
foes? And who, think you, are they ? I shall answer by direeiing you to a deeply 
interesting portion of dear old Ireland's history. There was a pure apostolic church 
n Ireland before my countr\^man,. your St. Patrick, arrived. St. Ihar was an eminent 
man in it. It was he v.^ho declared to St. Patrick, — "that the pure Irish church of 
Christ never acknoivledged the supremacy of any foreigner /" For 780 years this ancient 
and pure christian church flourished. St. Patrick was not a Roman catholic : he 
and the Irish church submitted to no popery, and to no pope of Rome ! This was 
the brightest and loveliest period of Irish history. But, hear me, who were the 
traitors? They were the pope, and Henry II. of England. They conspired the 
subjugation of Ireland. Henry overran Ireland, and betrayed it to the Roman pope. 
This nation al degradation and ruin were consummated in the traitorous council of 
Cashel, in A. D., 1172. Popery, from that year, overran Ireland : her pure christ- 
ian pastors were driven off, and destroyed: impious priests of Rome ruined your 
fathers' lovely christian church. And England has held your land in bondage to 
this day. The pope was the instigator, and Henry II. the tool. The pope, therefore, 
and the king of England, were the despots and traitors who compassed the ruin of old 



ItO»IAN CATHOLIC C0ITTR0VIR3X. 233^; 

Ireland;. See Dr. O'llalloian's Roman catholic antiquities^;: and O'J^ii^colV^ Views- 
of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 85. 

Is the spirit of your primitive fathers fled' and gone? Is there none of the pure 
Irish fan>ilies left to rise up again^it the predominant Roman party_ who have ruined,, 
enslaved, and beggared your country ? If there be, then hear me. Side by side with 
you, I war against the gross, degrading, and impious inventions of men; against a 
ghostly despotism, which has^ riveted its chains on your iinmortal souls; and which 
your ancient and primitive fathers, in the old world, would have dashed from them: 
with horror. I wage war against the impieties, fictions, and heaven daring knavery 
of Roman priestcraft. I war against a system, — not only not found in the Bible, 
but condemned in it, by the Almighty God, our Redeemer ! I humbly offer you aid. 
against men who have "traded in human souls;" who have their stipulated pric^ 
lor every species of sin and crime ; their price of each soul,- — be the man rich or poor. 
I war against men who profess to open heaven's gale unblushingly, for money : men, 
who are so destitute of the bowels of mercy, that they will not pray one of you out of 
purgatory without money ; — men who would let their best friends and neighbors lie 
in "flaming waves of purgatory," for millions of years, unless they are bought by 
large sums of money, to do this ! We come as humble aids, to assist you against 
impostors and barbarous despots,' — compared to whom Mohammed was pure; and 
Nero, mild and merciful ! You cannot, then, fellow citizens, with any show of reason, ^ 
or justice, deem me your enemy when I tell you the truth ! Be thi^ as it ipay, I tell 
you with deep solemnity, that there is a day coming,-r-if not in time, before you die,— 
most certainly in eternity, and at the bar of our common. Judge, the Lord Jesus, when 
you and these priests shall know whether I have spoken the truth to you ; and warned 
you in the name of the Eternal God! To that day I desire, with humble devotion,. 
to carry forward my appeal to God, and your consciences., I now go on. 

Ninth :— rThe doctrine of transuhstantiation is condemned by scripture and tli® 
Fathers. In this, doctrine unmatched; by dogma of Turk, or Brahmin, your priests 
aifect with as much gravity, as they can. put on, for the time,, to teach and persuade 
you to believe what no one of them, in their sober senses ever believed ; — namely, that 
by the muttering of the few Latin, words, — '•'■hoc est corpus meum,'''' &e., the little 
wheat wafer is actually "changed into Christ's body and blood, soul and divinity;" 
and the wine in the qhalice, " into his real blood, body, sonl, and divinity." See 
Gratiani:Decretum, p. .549, Be consccratione Dist. ii., are these words, — "Alter the 
consecration of the bread and wine^ the true body and bipod of Jesus Christ are, in 
reality, and according to the testimony of the senses, (sensuahter,) handled by the 
priest; and broken, and crashed by the teeth of the faithful." — See also Canones et 
decreta Concil. Tridenti, Lugd., Edit. 18254 Sess. 13, cap. 4, Trent Catech. De Sac. 
Euch. Sect. 33. And in section 31. That "holy council" taught that " a whole 
Christ" is in the- wafer, even his body, bones, and sinews ;" verum Christi Corpus, — 
veluti ossa^ et nervos, &-c." And my friend Dr. Avei;y,, who spent a wintei;, in Romc^ 
told me that he once saw two of the priests in that ci.ty, take the wafer, and as they 
chewed, it, they grinned, and said, — "hear, howl cranch his bones, nerves, and 
sinews!" I have two copies of this section of the Trent catechism before me, one 
in Latin, and an ancient English copy. These have the words, — "his body, bones, 
nerves, sinews," are in the transii^hstantiated wafer. But I am, also aware, and I shall 
here impart the secret to you, that in Britain and Ireland, the priests, in their newly 
assumed powei; to change even thq catechism of thqir last holy couDQi.l of Trent, hci,v^> 



231 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSr. 

actually left out this shocking cannibal phrase, about '■''his bones, nerves, sineii^s" 
being in the wafer. The above Latin is quoted from the Venice Edition of the Trent 
Catech. of 1582. page 241. See also the ancient English Edit. p. 212. 

Your priests quote tivo passages to prove this monstrous and incredible doctrine. 
The 1st is John ch. vr. Except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, ^'C. This they 
take literally. If this be correct, then they must take the other expressions as literally. 
For instance-, "-he that eatethofthis bread shall live for ever." Of course, if they be 
correct, then, all, each, and every one, without exception, who eats of the wafer, 
which is Christ's flesh, shall infallibly be saved; and all who eat it not,— as baptized 
infants, and thousands of adults, — and among others the penitent thief on the cross^ — 
even, all these must, according to the Romish doctrine, be damned ! Nay, if we take 
the words literally, in one part of the sentence, we must do so in the whole. Hence, 
" he that eats ofthis, yv ill never ^zmg-cr, literally : — ?iever thirst literally." John vi. 
35. Of course, if the priests be orthodox— all who have been so happy as to eat their 
wafer, will bid a glorious farewell to all the trouble of eating and drinking. They 
will never more hunger, never more thirst! What glorious news for our poor hard 
working laborers ! Only go the priest, and secure the wafer, — he wiE keep all the 
wine to himself, it is true, but no matter, in the wafer you have "the whole body,, 
bones, and nerves, and sinews," — and you will nevermore hunger after eating this r 
never more thirst ! You will need no more food! You need never go to market ! So 
monstrously absurd are the doctrine, and the proof thereof! Does the priest soberly 
believe that his victims are rational beings! 

The other proof of "-fAe learned jmests,'^ who are only two hundred and fifty years 
behind the Protestant world in knowledge, and general literature, is this: "This i^ 
my body : this is my blood of the new covenant." 

This they interpret literally ; and venture to teach that this means that the wafer 
Is truly Christ's flesh, and bones, and body. 

But our Lord says in John vi., '■^lam the living bread ivhich came dozen from heavtn.'* 
Of course, this must be taken literally^. Hence, in the Romish mode of interpreting, 
our Lord was most certainly transubstantiated into a piece of reaZ bread; that this 
piece of real bread had animal life in it ; and that this " animated bread," literally 
came down from heaven. The priests are bound, in honor and principle, to believe all 
this, and make the victims of their superstition believe it, if they believe in transubsian- 
tiation. But this is not alL 

Were your priests biblical scholars, — and did they know the- elements of Hebrew 
literature, they would' know what every Hebrew tyro knows, that the Hebrew and 
Syriac languages have no term to express the word '■'■ signify.''^ They always, of 
course, use the word "is." Let any man open his Biblej and see the proof. Here 
are some instances : "'The seven ears are seven years :" " the seed is the word : " the 
seven candlesticks are the seven churches:" "the woman is the great city:" (Rev. 
xvi. 18.) " Judah is a lion's whelp:" "all flesh is grass" "the- lock of hair is Jeru^ 
salem." Ezek. v. 1, 5. 

Now, if the Roma-n priests' interpretation of the sentence, — " this is my body, ^^ be 
]ust and correct, — then the seven ears of corn were-con verted, substantially and really, 
into seven years of time!' The seven cows were really converted^ bones, hides, and 
horns, into seven years! The seed of wheat was converted', in the hands of the 
astonished sower, into the pure and real word of God ! The seven candlesticks were 
changeti substantially into the magnificent and splendid array of seven real churches- 



Tkd^tM CATflOllC CONtftOVERSY.- 235 

JtK^ah was doomed by this doctrine, to be a yelping lion's whelp! All flesh, human 
and bestial, — even eaeh one' of our bodies, is, by an unparalleled hocus pocus, become 
the greeri, long, waving grass! And last, though not least, — a lock of hair, shorn off 
by the barber, is in the hands oftheastonished prophet, marvellously transubstantiated 
into a solid, beautiful, walled city, — even Jerusalem ! Verily, we need only give the 
Roman priests elbow room, in abundance, and eo man will be so stupid, or ungeite^ 
rous, as to say that the age of miracles is past ! ! 

I shall not insult my reader's understanding by insinuating that anj man in the 
exercise of reason, will say that this monstrous doctrine finds any countenance from- 
reason or the holy scriptures. We do the Roman priest no injustice when we say, 
that no man has ever suspected them of believing in it any farther than the counterfeiter 
and issuer of base coin, does believe in his own base manufactory. He believes in it, 
just so far as it robs his victim of his money, and enriches himself at the expense of the 
ignoraiii and unwary. So has the public said for many centuries ! He believes in 
in it just so far as it puts his victim's gold and silver into his own purse ! ! 

It is worthy of the notice of our learned men, and those who have reformed the 
philosophy of the schools, that the Roman catholic pope, and priests, who are as for 
behind, in the improvement of philosphy, as are the Mohammedans, and some of ths 
Hindoos, avail themselves of defence from the old exploded philosophy of Aristotle. 
AVhile all the learned and enlightened world reject the absurdities in the system of 
Aristotle, the Roman priests, enveloped in the fogs and mists of the eighth and ninth 
centuries, believe more in Aristotle, than in the Bible-: and bring in to the aid of their 
monstrous doctrines, his savage, and antiquated sophisms ; namely, that "^ there may 
be taste, where nothing is to be tasted ; that there may be color, without any thing to be 
represented ; tangibility, without any thing to be touched ; roundness, without any thirtg 
that is round, &c." And when the progress of science sweeps away the remains of 
the barbarism of Aristotle; and the false philosophy of the East, — that same lio-ht 
which scatters the darkness and barbarism of Turkey, and Hindostan, and China, will 
help to sweep away Romanism from the face of the earth ! 

The Roman priests are at one with the Unitarian here ; and affect to say that lire 
same objection which we cherish against this eonversion of a loafer into Christ's- banes, 
muscles, sinetvs, soul, and divinity, does militate equally against the mystery of trinity. 
Tl*e cases are infinitely difibrent. In the most Holy THnity there is no contradiction 
to reason, and the evidence of the senses. The doctrine of trinity holds out the God- 
head to be three in one sense, and one in another sense. When I say that God is one 
in essence, and three in persons, I say nothing contradictor}'-*. I can say I have "a 
soul, a body, and a spirit ;" and yet I am one. But to say that my body is a wafer ; 
or that a wafer is Christ's bones, sinews, muscles, soul, and' God-head : that a priest 
makes and creates his Creator, and then eats him, is beyond conception, mon- 
strously absurd ! It sets reason, and the evidence of the senses; and all gravity 
utterly at defiance ! 

Your priests say, "Why is it incredible : Almighty God cmi do it!" Very true, 
but has he converted it into Christ? The Almighty can annihilate idolaters; has he 
done it, while your priests are alive ! 

"But the church of Holy Mother is avrltness that he does it." No, follow citizens ; 
the t(3stimony of Rome, is the testimony of the " Man of 5/71/" 

"But the rent presenc'! of Christ is in the wafer, — it can be no idolatry, tlierefoiw 
to worship the htst!" The rcai proseiice of God is in all the works 4)fnaturc,heisin 



236 ROMAN CATHOLIC COJfTROT£B«T'<K 

that tree, in that river, in that stupendous mountain,— would you, therefore, worship, 
these ? 

This doctrine contradicts all the evidence of all my senses. Now, it is just as 
irmch the fixed and immutable law of his government of nature, that I should be- 
lieve the evidence of all my senses, — as It is the fixed law of his kingdom of grace,. 
that I should believe the testimony of his Word. This monstrous fiction, therefore,, 
seduces you into a violation of God's immutable laws : it makes you infidels against 
the God of nature ! This is not all of its evil consequences. 

If I distrust the strangest evidence of my senses, I must be an unbeliever in mi- 
racles. If I stood b3^ and saw our Lord raise Lazarus from the dead ; if I believe in 
your transubstantiatiGn, I could not confide in my senses ; taught as you are, to believe 
contrary to the evidence of ray senses, I could have no abiding faith in our 
Lord's miracle. It might seem to me that I saw Lazarus rise ; butlcould not believe 
it certainly ; the v/afer seems just as certainly ia my senses to be a wafer as that rising 
of the dead man; yet it is the body and blood of Christ really ! It may seem a resurrec- 
tion, it may seem a miracle, but I cannot trust my senses : I cannot believe the 
miracle ! Hence no man v/ho believes the dictate of your priests here, can believe 
in miracles; nor be a consistent christian. 

And this is not all ; the man who does really beUeve in transubstantiation, never 
can be relied on, as a witness to give credible testimony on any thing. Suppose in a 
case of murder, a real believer in this fiction is brought to testify. The bench says, 
*' look on the prisor.er at the bar ; did you see that man inflict the blow that killed the 
deceased ?" He says, " I did ; I heard him, I saw him do it. That is the identical 
man." "Take care what you sa}-," replies the counsel for the criminal, — "bring 
no false charges ; for any thing that the evidence of your senses can make you believe 
to the contrary, that thing standing there at the bar, may really be a piece of bread !" 
"Why, sir, I cannot be deceived ; I see him; 1 know him; I feel him; I hear 
him; and I say, he is the one who murdered ihe deceased." 

"No, sir, let me correct you; you firmly believe, maugre all the evidence of all 
your senses, that the priest's wafer is the very body, blood,, bones, soul and, divinity of 
Christ! You believe this on the priest's word, in opposition to all the evidences of 
your senses. Now, my word is as good as the priests' word ; and I say, as solemnly 
as he says, and as seriously and trul}' as he says, that the thing that you see at the bar 
is, in fact, a loaf of brown bread! And, sir, if yon believe the one, and profess to deny 
the other, you are a knave. Hence, on no principle of consistency, can you be a Mut- 
ness here !" Exit, in silerdio alio ! 

And, 3'et, unconvinced by argument-, or by ridicule, enslaved minds will doasthei? 
masters bid them; and will, as in duty bound, believe just as honestly, and as truly, 
that a bit of a wafer is the body, soul, and divinity of Christ, — as do a nation of the 
Asiatics, that our world is a great smooth body, as flat as a pancake ; and borne up. 
by the back of a huge land turtle! 

I am, fellow citizens,, yours, &c. 

W. C. B. 



roma:n catholic co!«?;troverst. 237 

LETTER XVL 

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAI* CATHOLIC CHURCH, 

P&ptry condemned by Scriphi^re and the Fathers.- 

*' Men cher Delphhn, sure you will agree,. 

That, for a bishop, none so fit as he, ^ 

Wlio gives tbe king s«ch very good avis-f-^' 

Fellow Citizens: — We have I>eay(I the voice of reason, common sense, and 
scripture, on the fiction of transtibstantiation ; now let us hear the Fathers, — They 
taught that the bread and wine were consecrated, simply, from a common to a holy. 
use, — sacramentally to signify Christ's body and blood. 

1. St. Irein jeus of the second century, bears ample testimony that this doctrine was 
unknown to the church, in his days. "All the bread which is of the earth," says her 
"when it has received the divine invocation, is no longer common bread, hut tht 
eucharist, consisting of two things, an earthly bread, and a heavenly. Thus, also, our 
bodies, when they have received the eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the 
hope of eternal life.'" Contra. Hares. Lib. 4. cap. 18. p. 251. Benedict. Edit. 1710. 
And Bellarm. De S. Euch. Lib.^. cap. 2. This ancient Father, it is obvious, hekl 
the true apostolical doctrine, that the bread was still earthly bread, and a symbol of 
the heavenly food^ after invocation. 

2. St. Ignatius gives no countenance to your priests, — ^^'Eva aprov &c. Break- 
ing ONE BREAD, whicli is the medicine of immortality, the antidote by means of 
which we shall not die, but live forever." Epist. i\d Ephes. Oxf. edit. 1708. 
Again ; — " If any one is without the altar, deprive him of the bread of God." He 
says not, " the flesh of Christ and his divinity." Again; — "Do you, then, resuming 
long suffering, re-establish yourselves in faith, which is the flesh of Christ our Lord ; 
and in love, which is the blood of Christ.'' Epist. Ad Trallesios. 

8. Gelasius /., the pope who wrote, in 492. Having noticed that the sacraments 
are divine things, by which we receive the body and blood of Christ, he says ; — 
" Tamen esse, &c. However the substance, or nature of the bread and ivine ceases not 
to exist: and assuredly the image and similitude of the body and blood of Christ are 
celebrated in the ])erfurmance of the mysteries.'''' Gelas. In duab. Nat. in Christo 
contra Eutych. This strong and most decisive testimony of a pope against the re- 
volting fiction of the mass, does of course meet with op])osition from your po})et:. 
But your own writer Dupin exhibits the certain and conclusive evidence of the au- 
thenticity of this part of Gelasius' writings, by /our arguments. SeeDupin'sNouvelle 
Biblioth. 5 cent. Edit. Utrecht, 1731— Fincli, pp. 242, 243. 

4. St. Hilary wrote thus : — " In fide, Sz,c. For the sacrament of the heavenly 
bread is received in the faith of t]K> resurrection ; and whosoever is without Christ, 
shall be loft f>)sliiig for the food of life." P. 531. Edit. Paris, 1652. 

5. St. Cyprian, — "Nam quia, &:c. For since Christ carried us all, and since h-c 
bore our sins, we see that the people is understocHl by the water ; and that the blood 
of Christ is shown by the loine.'' Epist. Ca?cil. Fratri, Go, p. 153. Oxf. Edit. 1582. 

6. St. Ambrose says, — " In comedendo, &c. In eating and drinking the things 
ofTered to us, wo signify the flesh and the blood. You receive the sacrament as a 
sinuUtude; it is thefgure of the body and blood of the Lord: you drink the likeness 



238 



ROMAX CATHOLIC C05TR0TER5T. 



0/ Aw precious blood.'^ De Sacram. Lib. 4. cap. 4. Paris Edit. 1690. How sensibly 
aad thoroughly does St. Ambrose oppose your priests' tictions i 

7. Ttriullian wrote after this manner, — "Acccptura, &c. The bread which he 
had taken and distributed to his disciples, he made his body, by saying fA/^ is my hcdyj 
that is, — the jigure of my body. He then goes on to notice llie words of Christ in 
John vi., and shows, in our Lord's words, that the phrase is to be taken not corporaUy 
and fleshly, but spiritually. See Advers. Marci. Lib. 5, p. 458. Edit. Paris, 1675; 
and De Resur. Cam. cap. 37. p. 347. 

8. St. Theodoret says, first, in his Dialogue II. in the name of the ill informed 
Eranistes, that "the symbols after invocation are changed and become another thing, 
&c." He then corrects him, and gives his own mind thus, — " You are taken in a net 
that you made yourself. For the mystical signs do not, after consecration, depart 
from their own nature. For they remain in their former substance, fgure, and form, 
and may be seen and touched as before.'' Paris Edit. 1608, in Latin. 

9. Eusebius says,— IlaAi;' yap &c. For again he gave to his disciples the sym- 
bols of the divine econom}', and he commanded them to make the image of his own 
bod3^" Again, — "He commanded them to use bread as the symbol of his own 
body." See Demonst. Evang. Lib. 8. cap. 1. Paris Edit. 1544. 

10. Justin, the Martyr, thus wrote in 150, — ''Onitevow &c. I also affirm that 
the prayers, and the praises of the saints are the only perfect sacrifices acceptable 
to God. For these only have the christians undertaken to perform ; and by the 
commemoration of the wet and the dry food, in which ive call to mind the sufferings 
which the God of gods suffered through Him whose name is blasphemed, &c." See 
his Dial, ivith Trypho the Jew ; Paris Edit. 1515. p. 345. 

11. St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, writes: — " E;/ -ijtw &c. In the type of the bread is 
given to you the body, and in the type of the wine is given to you the blood, that you 
may be a partaker of the body and blood of Christ; and one body and one blood 
•with him.'" Catech. Mystic. 4. 1, p. 292, Oxf. Edit. 1703. Again : — " revofievoi &c. 
For they tasting, are not ordered to taste of the bread and the wine, but of the anti- 
type of the body and blood of Christ.'' Cat. Myst. 5. 17. p. 300, Finch, p. 202. 

12. Clemens Alcxandrinus is full, and explicit against your priests, and their novel 
figments. He wrote thus in A. D. 220 ; — •< YL-ah &c. And then he said the bread 
that I will give you is my flesh : but flesli is irrigated by blood ; therefore the wine 
allegorizes the blood. ^^ Again, — "Thus the word is frequently described allegorically 
as food, and fiesh, and bread, and blood, and milk." — "Nor let it appear strange to 
any one, when we say that milk allegorically describes the blood of the Lord. For 
does not wine allegorize it?'' See his Paedag. Lib. 1. cap. 6. p. 104. 105. Paris Edit. 
1641. He has many similar expressions declaring the bread, and wine to be the 
mystical or solemn sacramental symbols. See p. 100, and 156. 

13. St. Athanasius, upon that passage of scripture, " Quicunque dixerit, &c. 
whosoever shall say, ^"c", writes full}^ against your priests' impostures. Having quoted 
the words uf our Savior respecting ''eating his flesh," he proves that this means not 
carnally, but spiritually. " Our Lord," — says he, — " spake both of the spirit and of 
the flesh, and made a distinction; between his spirit, and his flesh, that believing in 
what was visible to their eyes, and in his invisible nature, they might learn that the 
things which he said were not carnal, aaoKiKa but spiritual." He then adds a potent 
fefijtation of the fiction of the priests. "For, for how many would his body have 
sufficed for meat, that it should become the nourishment of the whole world ?" 



ROilAJf CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 239 

Again, — " the flesh he spoke of was heavenly nourishment, and spiritual food from 
above."' And he adds that Christ " draws them away from the corporeal sense, and 
teaches them to take it in this spiritual way." See the Paris Edit, of 1627. 

14. Origen is as fully and decisively against the priests. "KaiovK &c. It is rK)t 
the matter of the bread, but the words spoken over it, which profit him that eats not 
unworthily. And these things I speak concerning the typical and symbolical body." 
Comment on Matth. Rouen Edit. 1668. Again; — "There is in the New Testament, 
a letter which killeth him who does not understand spiritually the things there said. 
For if you take this according to the letter, — Except ye eat my flesh, and drink my blood, 
— THIS LETTER KILLETH !" Homil. 7. ou Lcvit. 10 ; Basil Edit. 1571. Once more ; 
"If, as these affirm, he had neither flesh nor blood — of what flesh, of what body, and 
ofwhat blood, are the bread and cup, (which he delivered,) the images ? By these 
symbols, He commended his memory to his disciples.'" Dialog, iii. contr. Marc. Basil 
Lat. Edit. 1571. 

15. St. Chrysostom in one place, holds the doctrine of Consubstantiation with 
Luther; — "Christ prepares for us his body, not only in faith, but in very deed.''"' 
" We have become one body and one flesh with Christ. " Chrys. in Matt. Homil. it/? 
In another passage he opposes this, and also Transubstantiation. For instance :— 
"If Jesus did not die, ofwhat are the things we perform, the symbols?" Same 
Homily. Again: — "As before the bread is consecrated, we call it bread ; but when 
the grace of God has consecrated it, by the priest, it is freed from the name of bread, 
and is reckoned worthy to be called the Lord's body ; although the nature of bread 
remains in it," &c. Chrys. to the monk Cassarius. 

That this treatise is genuine, we have the testimony of Peter the Martyr, and the 
arguments, at length for it, in Dupin's Nouv. Bibl. Tom. iii. Utrecht Edit. ]73I. 

16. St. Bernard in Serm. 5. in Psal. says, — " Quid est manducare, &c. What 
is it to eat his flesh, and to drink his blood ; but to communicate with his passion, aiid 
to imitate his conversation in the flesh." Willet. p. 510. 

17. St. Jerome writes : — *'In typo sanguinis, &-c. As a type, or symbol of his 
blood, Christ offered not water, but wine." Tom. ii. Lib. 2. Advers. Jovin. p. 90. 
Again, — " Because the flesh of our Lord is true meat, and his blood is true drink, in 
an exalted and spiritual sense, — ;iuxta avayMynv, — we have only this good in this life, 
if we eat his flesh, and drink his blood, not only in the mystery, but also in the read- 
ing of the scriptures." In Eccles. cap. 3. Tom. v. p. 24. Paris Edit. 1602. — Onee 
more, " I believe that the Gospel is the body of Christ. I believe the holy scriptures 
to be his doctrine ; and when he says, he who does not eat my flesh and drink 
ray blood, (although this may be understood of the mystery,) yeA the word of the 
scriptures, and the divine doctrine is more truly the body of Christ, and his blood 
If, at any time, we go to the mystery, whoever is faithful, understands that if he falls 
into sin, he is in danger ; so if at any time, we hear the word of God ; — and the word 
of Christ, and his blood, be poured into our ears, and we are thinking of something 
else, how great is the danger we incur!" Tom. vii. p. 420 : in Psal. 147. So com- 
pletely does this father show his ignorance of the novel fictions of your priests, that 
he believes in the body and blood of our Lord, as purely spiritual in the gospel, and 
in the eucharist ; — not carnal, in the hands, and mouths of priests ! 

18. Finally, St. Augustine gives this admirable exposition of "eating Christ's 
flesh," — in opposition to you. " If a passage is })receptivc, and either forbids a crime, 
or enjoins usefulness, or charity, it is not figurative. But, if it seems to command a 



S40 ROMAJf CATHOLIC CONTROVERSr. 

ifcrime, or forbids charity, &c., it is figurative. Unless ye eat the Jlesh of the son of 
man, and drink his blood. Here he appears to enjoin wickedness. It is, therefore, 
figurative, teaching us th-at we partake of the benefits of the Lord's sufferings," &x:. 
Be Doctr. Chr. Tom. iii. Lib. 3, p. 52: Bened. Edit, 

Again,"— so far from believing that the bread and wine are converted into the 
divinity, he says, — ""■ How shall I put forth my hand to heaven, and lay hold of him 
wtio sitteth there ? Put forth yoni faith, and you will have laid hold of him." Tom. 
lii. p. 630. Again, — " This is the word of Good, that ye believe on him whom he 
hath sent. To do this is to eat the meat which perisheth not. Why do you prepare 
your teeth and your stomach? Believe only, and you will have eaten." Tom. iii. 
p. 490 ; Tract 25, in John vi. Lastly, — '* When the Lord was about to give the 
Holy Spirit, he said that he was the bread which descends from heaven, exhorting us 
to believe in him. For to believe in him, is to eat the living bread.'' p. 494. 
Again, — "It seemed to them a hard saying, when he said — except a man eat my 
'jflesh, and drink my blood ! They received it foohshly ; they thought on it carnally ; 
they supposed that the Lord was about to cut off" little pieces from his body, and give 
them to them." "But he taught them saying— it is the Spirit that quickeneth : the 
flesh profiteth nothing ; my words, they are spirit, and they are truth. Understand 
spiritually what I have spoken. You are not about to eat this body which you 
see : nor to drink that blood which they shall shed, who shall crucify me. I hav* 
recommended to you a -certain sacrament, which, if spiritually understood, shali 
quicken you." In Psal. 98. Also Tract xi. in Ev. Johan. L ii. vi. 

Had St. Augustine lived in our times, and among the most enlightened Protestants, 
no language could he have employed more clear, and decisive, in condemning the 
monstrous fictions of popery, and in <;onfinning our Protestant doctrine of the holy 
Supper. 

The Liturgies of Clnysostom, and Basil, universally used in the Greek -church, 
condemn this novel doctrine. Thus in the former it is said, — " In remembrance oi' 
this coirimand of our Savior, we offer to thee thine own, out of thine own gifts ; we 
-offer thee this reasonable and unbloody worship. &x;." Thus they call the bread and 
wine after invocation, gifts ; thus precluding all idea of change into real fl«sli. 

In the Liturgy of Basil we have these words, — " Laying before thee, these symbols 
cxf the body and blood of thy Christ, we beseech thee, &c." Goar. Euch. Graec. 
Biblioth. patrum. Tom. ii. fol. 1624. 

The Liturgies of St. James, and Mark use the same word "gifts," when speaking 
of the bread and v^ine. The Ethiopic Liturgy, used in the chur-ch of Abyssinia, after 
tlie prayer of consecration, says, — "Now, O Lord, M^e, celebrating the memorial of thy 
death, do offer thee this bread, and this cup, &c." 

Cyril, the patriarch of Constantinople, in the 16th century, thus expressed the 
views of the Greek church, — "In the eucharist, we do confess a true and real pre- 
sence of Christ; but such a one as faith dfers us, not such as a devised transubstan- 
tiation." Cyr. Respons. cap. 17. p. 60. Lond. Prot. Journ. vol. iv. p. 144. Finally, 
Metrophanes, the patriarch of Alexandria, thus expresses the sentiments of the Ori- 
ental churches : " We call the Lord's supper a sacrifice, but a sacrifice that is spiritual 
and commemorative ; s]9mii«zZ, as having nothing carnaZin it; commemorative^ as be- 
ing performed in remembrance of the sacrifice once offered on the cross. This is 
taught by St. Chrysostom, and the whole church, saying, This is done in reraembranoe 
of what was done then." " We never believed that Christ was bodily present in the 



HOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. ^41 

fflysteries." See Metroph. Conf. Cath. et Apostol. Eceles. in Orient. Lend. Prot. 
Journ. iv. 145. 

To the ample testimonies of the christian world against your priests, we solicit 
your candid attentron. 

How long will you suffer yourselves to be imposed on ? Is there the form of a 
rational being, but yourselves, who can believe that an impious, God-despising 
priest can create his Maker? What ! Create the Almighty out of a little flour and 
watet? The most degraded of the heathen, made his god out of the trunk of a stately 
tree. One part he cut up, and made fire of it, to cook his food ; of the other part he 
made a god ; and he bowed down to it, and adored it ! This was infinitely degrading, 
and contemptible ! But your priests sink you all beneath the infinite degradation of 
€ven these pagans! He makes his god, and your god outof a little flour and water! 
He actually makes the idol of his, and your adoration out of a little wafer! And 
after you have bowed down to this bran idol, and on your knees adored it with pray- 
ers, and with incense ; and after you have carried it about through the streets, as you 
do in Catholic lands, and compelled, by violence and arms, others to commit the 
damning sin of adoring the hran god, also : — you then actually eat it up ! Did you 
ever hear of the most brutish pagan eating his gods ! He might worship animals and 
vegetables! But brutish as he was, even his leek and his onion that he worshipped, 
he would not eat! But your priests, like the hero of Pope in the Dunciad, take a 
long race, and jump the deepest into the abyss of abominable idolatry! 

And what of the god is not eaten up, is put into the Pix, (box).. And if some of 
the god falls in \he form of crumbs, the dogs pick up these parts, and pieces'of the 
god! And these dogs have the god in them. Remember the instructive story of the 
Lady's lap dog, which suddenly swallowed th^s wafer as the priest was giving it to 
its mistress ! The little fellow was actually put into a Nunnery, and kept as a holy 
personage, — as holy certainly as any of Ms sacerdotal compeers — no one doubts it ! 
And when full of days, this little dog which had the god in him, died, he was buried 
in holy ground! Moreover, the vermin, such as worms, and mice, and rats, have 
entered the Pix ; and eaten the hran god ! What a sublime god ! What a ghostly 
elevation of sentiment! Your god eaten up by men, and dogs, and worms, and mice 
What! Can he not take care of himself, then ! How can he take care of you? If 
he cannot save himself from the devouring throats of beasts iind reptiles, how caa 
he ever save you from death ! 

Had this unparalleled doctrine of Rome been obtruded on the faith of the most de- 
graded of the pagans, how would they have blushed for human nature, disgraced and 
insulted by beings, — men shall I call them? who invented and. imposed on you, 
fellow citizens, for the sake of gain, this monstrous fiction of transubstantiation ! 

I am, fellow citizens, yours respectfull}'-, 

W. C. B. 

P. S. I have the pleasure of announcing the conversion of another R. C. priest. 
Lately, the Rev. John Bur k left the Romish church, and joined the Episcopal churcli 
in Virginia. The Rev. Mr. Peixota, lately left the church of Rome, and joined the 
Lutheran church in Pennsylvania. And, now, the Rev. S. B. Smith, many years a 
prieet, has united himself with the Presbyterian church, in Philadel})hia. 

W. C. B 



22 



242 R0MA5 CATHOLIC CO.XTROVERST. 



LETTER XVII. 



TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMA>' CATHOLIC CHCRCH, 

Popery condimn-'.d by Reason, Scripture, and the Fathers. 

The verv origin of the word Mass establishes the identity of poperv and infidelity: Itk , 
MissA est: Go : our unbloody sacrifice now oftered, is se>'t to heaven and accepted ! 

Fellow Citize>'3 : — Having paid our respects to transubstantiation. I go on to its 
cognate doctrine, and observe in the next place. — 

Tenth : that the 3Iass is condemned by reason, scripture, and the Fathers. As 
many of my readers have never seen ■• the ludicrous play of a grand mass, in pontifi- 
calibus,'^ I intend soon to devote a letter to a graphic painting of it. My present aim 
is to niter its condemnation from these three testimonies, from which hes no appeal. 
- First, Reason condemns it. The Mass, in Roman style, is the offering up, in sacri- 
fice, the wafer, converted by transubstantiation, into the real flesh, and sonl, blood, 
and- divinity, of Christ. This, the priests with an ill affected gravity, contrive to make 
you believe, is c reaZ sacrf^ce /or the quick and the dtad ! This same '• body and 
divinity" are offered up : yes I " the divinity" is offered up in sacrifice I The divin« 
nature of our Lord was the altar which made his true and onl}^ sacrifice of the human 
nature to be of infinite value. But the Roman priests take " the divinity and sonl as 
well as body of Christ," in his hands, and offers all of them in a sacrifice I 
This, reason revolts at : — this, reason pronounces a horrible blasphemy ! Moreover, 
all men, possessed of the least grains of common sense, are fully convinced that a ma- 
terial body cannot be in millions of places, at once. "l.Tolle spatia, &c., take away 
from, bodies," says Augustine in Epist. 57, — ••their existing in one place, at one time, 
and they no where exist." But the Mass assumes this principle without proof, that 
the one human body of Christ is in heaven, and in all parts of the earth, at once : — 
that it is in glory, and yet it is daily and totally eaten up, and devoured by a million 
of Romish months, everj' day ! And the next moment it is as ready to be eaten up 
again, as ever! It is at once visible, and invisible ! Divisible, and indivisible! It 
is all here in the priest's box, and it is not here, but elsewhere ! It is one whole, and 
yet in a million of bits, in a million of different mouths I It is contained in heaven, 
and yet not there contained ! It existed formerly, and yet it is daily made, by the 
priests muttering of the words, — ^'hoc est corpus.^^ It is one, and a whole human 
bod}', in small bits in a million of different stomachs, and yet it is altogether external 
of all these same stomachs I It is to be made daily, and vet never to be made J In 
a word, our Lord, according to the doctrine of the Mass, while sitting at the first 
table, was at the same moment, in the mouth, and the stomacliof each of the apostles. 
While sitting, he took his own perfect body, head, and all, into his own hands : and 
while sitting, he broke himself into pieces, and with his hand, still sitting, after h« 
was broken, he gave himself to each of his people : and was eaten by them all, while 
he was yet sitting, and talking to them. And after being eaten up by eleven men, 
he walked out, and made the intercessory praj'er, while he was the same mo- 
ment,-^in the stomachs of eleven different men I And finally, after being eaten and 
digested by these eleven different men, he was crucified, he rose, and ascended to 
heaven ! 



EOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 243 

All these unparalleled absurdities the Roman priest teaches his victims : and actu- 
ally commands them to believe them, — "on pain of damnation!" 

Second: The holy scriptures condemn the Mass. It is a fundamental doctrine of 
liome, that the mass is a real, propitiatory sacrifice, offered up to appease the wrath of 
God, for the dead, and the living. The priests first create our blessed Lord out of a 
little wafer : and then offer up this new made hran god as a real sacrifice, to appease 
the wrath of God ! And they worship with solemn adoration and incense, this god 
in the wafer. 

The scriptures pass a sentence of double condemnation on the mass. First : as a 
horrible idolatry, at which every pious man shudders. The priests and their victims 
worship a newly made wafer god ! Now, the Bible says, "Thou shalt worship the Lord 
thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." The worship of the host, and the mass, 
is not a whit more justifiable than the idolatry of the Jews, or the Pagans. The 
mass, is as degrading, as impious, as God-despising, as God-provoking, as the mon- 
strous idolatry of the Jews in worshipping f^e golden calf! And in point of atrocity, 
it comes the nearest of any sinful devices, to that of human sacrifices ! For if we 
may believe the priests, they use real human flesh, and real human blood in the 
mass ! 

I beg you and your priests to hear how this abomination of the mass is condemned 
by, first, the Old Testament. You know that our blessed Lord, afterthe flesh, was a 
Jew, and so were his disciples. And he came to fulfil the law, and not to break it. 
This you admit. Now, then, you teach that our Lord converted the bread into his 
otvn flesh, really, and ivithout deception ; and the wine of the cup into his oivn real 
blood, — that is into human Jksh, and human blood, without any imposition. And hav- 
ing done this, he made his disciples, who were all Jews, — -eat this human flesh, and 
drink this human blood! Here your priests represent our Lord, as an impostor, de- 
liberately breaking the law of Moses, which prohibited the use of the blood of 
beasts, — infinitely more that of a human being. May I direct your attention to Levit. 
xvii. 10, "Whatsoever man there be among you, that eateth any manner of blood ; I 
will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from 
among the people." And, moreover, your priests represent our Lord as having broken 
a noted law of Moses recorded in Numbers xix. 11, which prohibited a Jew from even 
touching a dead body of a man; if he did, "he was unclean seven days." But, 
with these laws of Moses before their eyes, your priests do in the mass, — Oh I most 
horrible, represent our Lord and his disciples not merely " touching a dead body," but 
absolutely edlmg living human flesh! Yes! to crown the climax ofsatanic impiety in 
the mass, your priests make the Lord, and his disciples, and all the " pimple feithfal," 
to be absolutely guilty of cannibalism ! In the name of all that is sacred, — how long 
will you, fellow citizens, permit these impostors to make cannibals, and idolaters 
of you ! 

Second : Let your priests hear how the mass is condemned by the Now Testament.. 
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the apostle contrasts the daily, and ever repeated sa- 
crifices of the Jewish church, with the one sacrifice of our blessed Lord, once offered 
for us ; and theuce shows the imperfection of the former ; and the infinite perfection 
of the latter. The whole weight of the argument of inspiration, rests on the divine 
fact of the perfection of the one, and never to be renewed sacrifce of Christ. Take this 
away, as your Roman priests do, and you destroy the whole force, and Ijcauty of llie 
apostle's divine argument. "This yian," says the ai^ostle, "^Aerhchad giJerQd qnjj 



244 R0MA5 CATHOLIC CO?f TROTERST. 

sacrificefor sin, forever sat down on the right band of God." '-By o>'£ sacrifice he 
hath perfected, forever, them that are sanctified." Heb. x. 12. 14. And St. Peter 
says, " Christ hath suffered once for sin." 1 Ep. iii. 18. 

But in a heaven daring manner, in the very face of all these divine testimonies 
borne to the truth of the one, perfect, and never to he repeated sacrifice of Christ, your 
priests pretend to offer up Christ, daily, in his "real body, soul, and divinity/' a 
sacrifice for the sins of the quick and the dead. Now, we ask thera, was our Lord's 
sacrifice perfected, at his death ; or was it left imperfectl If imperfect, it was worse 
than none; it was a mockery of an unclean, and spotted thing, offered to God! You 
w'ill not, — ^5^ou dare not openi}' avow tliis blasphemy, which would make even Satan 
blush! If it was perfect, — then it is uLterh'- impossible, nay, even blasphemous to 
suppose that you can renew it, and repeat it, and make it acceptable to God for the 
quick and the dead I 

Again; supposing for a moment, that 3-our priest's mass is "a propitiatory* sacri- 
fice," it must be, either the same as our Lord*s atonement : or. it must be a continua- 
tion of what he began on the cross; or, it must be a renewal, and reiteration of it. 
It cannot possibly be the same as Christ's; any more than xhe first Lord's Supper, is 
that of our day. If it be the continuation of what Christ began ; — then our Lord must 
-have left his worii incomplete, imperfect, and, therefore, utterly useless I If it be a 
reiteration, and renewal of w^hat oui- Lord did on the cross, — then your priests are 
placing ff^« perftctly finished icorJc of Christ, on the sam^ footing as the imperfect, and 
ever renewed sacrifices of beasts, in the ceremonies of the Mosaic law : and, thence, 
it can be no more availing in its efficacy than the blood of bulk ! This they will not 
dare openly to avow. The Bible declares, Rom. vi. 9. 10.. that "-Christ being 
raised firom the dead, ditth no tnore.'^ '• He died unto sin once.'' "By one offeririg 
he hath jjerfected, for ever, them that are sanctified.'' ''After Christ had ofi'ered om 
sacrifice for sin, he forever sat down on the right hand of God." Heb. x. 12. 14. 

This, your prie^s seek to evade by an extraordinary distinction. It is this :— 
There is one bloody sacrifice, not to be repeated: but we offer up "the unbloody 
sacrifice of the mass." Here, in your painful and disgraceful ignorance of God's 
holy Word, you contradict divine revelation: and deny wb-at God has declared. 
There can be no propitiatory sacrifice without blood r — there may be sacrifices of 
prayer and praise; but there can be no propitiation without blood. " The unbloody 
sacrifice of the mass" is an impious and diabolical invention. God has declared if. 
and all the puny rebels of Rome cannot gainsay it. Hear his own awful and eternal 
words: — '' It is the hlood that maJceth an atonement for the soul.'' Lev. xvii. 11. 
'■'•Without shedding of hlood there is no remission.'' Heb. ix. 22. •• An unbloody 
sacrifice," such as that of the mass, we, therefore, pronounce, to be the wickedest of 
all the inventions to which the devil, and the- pope of Rome have ever yet given cur- 
rency ! 

Third: — The Mass is cond'tvaned oy the christian Fathers. These writers knew 
neither the name, nor the thing, — of mass. They called the holy Supper of our Lord, 
'' the gift," '' the eucharist ;" and more generally, as St. Jerome does, ''the myster\-." 
And, with them, this was synonymous v^nth a symhol, b}- which solemn and invisible 
t'ningswere represented by outward, and visible elements. See St. Jerome: Evagr.: 
Tom. iv. Again: St. Jerome calls it "the table of the Lord." and speaks of "-the 
bread," and the "cup of the table of the Lord.*' Here he confirms two points-.- 1st. 
That the cup vras given to all; as well as the holy bread. 2d. That the holy Supper 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROYERST^ §4S 

©four Lord, was, in the belief of these Fathers, a feast upon a sacrifice ; and not ♦' a 
sacrifice ; not an altar/^ See St. Jerome, Lib. 7, De Ordin. 

In like manner, Damasus, Epist. 4, calls it, "the table of the Lord;" not "an 
altar," not " a sacrifice." This was Paul's designation of it; and our Lord was not 
sacrificed at, or on "a table ;" but on the cross. 

St. Augustine calls it "the Eucharist," — the thank offering. C. 88. And Willet's 
Synops. p. 579. And that eminent Father, in Libr. Ad Fratres in Erem. when speak- 
ing of the prodigal son's return, and the fatted calf being killed, says, — "He slew 
the fatted calf, when He renewed in the sacrament of the altar, the memory of his 
passion, in his mind, — memoriam passionis, &c." Thus Augustine makes the 
Eucharist a sacrament, — not a sacrifice of the altar ; a commemoration of his passion 
and death. I shall offer one memorable sentence more, from this father, against your 
priests. "Hujus sacrificii caro et sanguis, ante adventum,, &c. The flesh and blood 
of this sacrifice of our Lord, before his coming, was exhibited in the type of the sacri- 
ficial victims : during his actual suffering, it was presented indeed, and in truth ; but 
after his ascension, it is celebrated through the sacrament of his commemoration.''^ Aug^ 
cap 20. Lib. Contra. F. Manichaeum, Turet. vol. iii. p. 601,, So decisive is this emi- 
nent Father against the modern fiction of the mass. 

St. Bernard thus writes, — "Sicut Christus, &c. As Christ is daily offered up,, 
while we do show forth his death ; so he seemeth to be born,, when we faithfully 
represent his nativity." Bern, in Vigil. Natal. Sem. 6,. Can any thing be mora 
decisive against the sacrifice of the mass X If Christ be often sacrificed, as the priests, 
say, — "then," says St. Bernard, "is he often born!'' In the Lord's Supper, there^. 
fore, St, Bernard advocates a holy sacramental remembrance of him ; and by no means 
a sacrifice of him. 

The Decretals are positively against your mass. Thus, in Decret. p. 2. Caus., 
1, Qu. 1. cap. 72, Gregory calls it " the communion ;" he never dreamed of it being 
called a sacrifice. Again, in cap. 63, it is called, — ^'- Sac r amentum pietatis.,'' the sacra- 
ment of piety, — not a sacrifice. In cap. 12., Gelasius, it is called " the mystery." 
In cap. 5, it is named, " the sacrament of the body and the blood of the Lord.'^ 
These were the names, and the sacred meaning, and use of the Lord's Supper^ 
before the revolting modern fiction of the mass^ I beg leave to give another extract 
from the Decretals^ — " Quod factum, &c." That which was 07ice done is done in our 
memory, every year.'' Deer. Par. 3, Dist. 2, cap. 51. And in cap. 53, we find these 
words : — " Quod nos, &c., that v/hich we do, is done in the remembrance of him." 

Pope Gregory says:-^" Sine intermissione, &c. Without ceasing, our Redeemer- 
immolates a sacrifice for us, in dtmonstrating, or showing forth to his father j his incar^ 
nation, &c. See Greg. Moral. Lib. i. cap. XO. This pope had not conceived, as yet, 
any thing even like the figment of the modern mass ! 

St. Chrysostom thus opposes the mass: — ''Tovto yap ifec," "For, do this, he 
says, in remembrance of me. We do not perform a different sacrifice, as the high 
priest did then ; but always the same : or, rather v/e make a memorial of the sacri- 
fice." In Epist. ad Hebr. cap. 10. 

Justin Martyr, in A. D. 15Q, thus wrote:—" On ^£r, &c. I also atfirm that the- 
prayers, and praises of the saints are the only perfect sacrifices acceptable to God. 
For these only have the Christians undertaken to perform ; and by the communication 
of the ivetfood, and the dry, in which we call to remembrance the sufi'c rings, in which 
tU^ God of gods sullered &tc." Dial. Cum Tryph. Judeuo, p.. 3-15., Paris JEd.it. 1515^ 

23* 



246 aoM.^^r catholic eoNTR(yVERBr.- 

Clemens x\Iexanclrinus in lilie manner, thus wrote :— " Er* yow, «fec. Our earthfy 
altar is the assembly of such as join together in prayers ; having, as it were, a com- 
mon voice and mind. For the sacrifice of the church is the word ascending as 
incense from- holy seals; their sacrifices, and their whole minds being open to God." 
Stromatum. lib. 7, p. 717, Paris Edit. 1641. These were the offly saerijiees then 
known, in the primitive, pure, and apostolical church. 

Tertullian, in one of his books, shows us how utterly ignorant he was of the 
mass, both as to name and thing. "Namque quod non terrenis sacrificiis, &c. For 
we must not think of appeasing God with earthly sacrifices, but we must offer to him 
spiritual sacrifices." " Thus, therefore, spiritual sacrifices are meant; and a contrite 
heart is shown to be an acceptable sacrifice to God." See his book Advers. Judseos. 
eap. 5. p. 188 : Paris Edit. 167.5. 

Lactantius, in like manner, had no conception of the modern Mass ; or of any 
ghostly sacrifice of wafer, and wine, and water! See his Book Be Veto- Cultu. Lib, 
6. Tom. i". p. 509: Paris Edit. 1748, — "Duo sunt &e. There are two things which 
should be offered to God"; a giO', and a sacrifice ; a gift should be for ever, a sacrifice 
for a time, — in temfns.'" And having shown that no gifts nor sacrifices can nov/ be 
given to God to propitiate him, since Christ has died, he adds in explaining the nature 
of 02/r gifts and sacrifices as christkns, — " Therefore to God is to be offered, — incor- 
porale, the incorporeal offering, which he makes use of. The- gift is inlegrity of 
mind: the sacrifice is praise and a hymn." 

I have thus far been insensibly led on, in the examination of the mass ;■ and in con- 
trasting primitive purity of doctrine, with this revolting figment of Romish priestcraft. 
I shall close this Letter with a few miscellaneous remarks on the mass. 

Although the Mass is sustained by neither reason, nor scripture, nor the early 
Fathers, — it is yetmightily sustained. It is sustained by the whole posse of priests 
from the pope, down to Viear Power, and Padre Levins. And in spite of rhyme and 
reason, they will cling to it, until the whole system tumble in ruins. It is the grand 
specifi.c tocmivert every thing into money. "Whither tendeth the doctrine concerning 
the mass being a propitiatory sacrifice for the dead," — ^says Dr. Barrow, vol. vi. p^ 
233., — " but to engage m-en to leave, in their wills, good sums to offer on their behalf!" 
*' By this, the priest makes an irresistible appeal to- the dying wretch, of every class^ 
overwhelmed with all the- vices and attrocious pollutions, ini which popery steeps its 
abused victims; and- in v/hich it- entertains them in the deepest sleep of moral death, 
imtil its convenient hour comes, — that is to say, the fittest moment for making the 
most lucrative speculation on the- soul of the dying wretch! For it is then, under 
the exquisite tortures of conscience, and the merciless goadings of priestcraft, that he 
will eagerly purchase deliverance from the pope's hobgoblin flames, — on any terms, 
and for any sum of money, and fbr any laads,— especially when he knows, he can 
carry none of them with him! 

It is a curious feet, and it ought to be more generally known, that the old Mortmain 
law of England, and which stands unrepealed in the statute book of our state to this 
day, was imperatively called forth by sacerdotal rapacity, and the incredible success, 
of the priest-s^ -in seHing their purgatorial flames! By this lucrative speculation, they 
were laying field to field, and domain ta domain ! Had it not been for the interven-. 
tion of this law,, prohibiting such bodies from receiving such bequests, the priests 
would, probably, soon have possessed the landed property of all England! They- 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSr, 247 

would soon have made the rich exchange of the dark flaming waves of ptirgatoTyr for 
the beautiftil domains of England ! 

The priests have invented masses admirably adapted to suit every body, and all 
times. There ar'e the occashnal masses, and the ordinary masses; there are high 
masses, sung by the choristers, with the aid of the deacon, &c. ; and there are the low 
masses, in which the prayers are merely rehearsed. The masses for the dead, de- 
signed to relieve, and finally, to bring out souls from purgatory, are the most conveni- 
ent, and profitable, because they are the best paid ! For who would not give all he 
has, and even leave his wife and children to beg, — if he can only bribe — what is no 
easy matter, — a luxurious, indolent, and stvariclous priest, to set his poor soul out of 
purgatorial flames ! The splendor, value, and efficacy of masses, are purely in pro- 
portion to tlie amount of the cash paid. The most magnificent and earnest mass, being 
the best paid, is v/hen the Chapelle ardente is erected. Thatig, when a representation 
of the deceased, the new inhabitant of purgatory, is set up, amid the blaze of was 
candles. Then, when the gold and silver are heard to tinkle in the coffer; a solemn 
absolution is pronounced, forthwith, on the poor wretch in the flames. And, forth- 
with, at the simple nod of the priest, as he pockets the money, all the demons, and the 
devil himself,— so the priest says — quit their hold ; and the pure soul of the lately 
oppressed wretch, is in a moment winging its flight to heaven, to the bosom of Abra- 
ham! How amazing is the power of gold in Rome ! 

But, so far as we can penetrate the priestly secrets, our "dealers in human souls,"" 
and the traders in Purgatory flames, have the candor to admit, that this class of Ro' 
man redeemed souls, are not admitted exactl}^ into the same place where those, who 
are saved by grace alone, sing the praise of redeeming love. For those persons cannot 
possibly join, with any kind of good grace, in the same heavenly song. They can, 
sing only, in truth, of what saved them. They cannot sing of that in which they had 
no interest, and from which they had no benefit. They can, with no kind of truth, or 
honesty, sing of any thing else than the singular praises of priests, silver, and ptirga-^- 
tory ! And in no other possible form can the chorus be framed, than in this, — '' Wor- 
thy are the priests, and the silver, and purgatory, to receive our most cordial jjraises, ajid 
hearty commemorations forever ! 

I have only to add, that, to accommodate all persons who have the means, and a 
taste for this ghostly merchandize, with the priests, there are masses to be sold ami 
said for cattle, for strayed beasts, for stolen goods, and for travelers, going a journey,, 
that they may have "■ priestly good luck.^^ These are styled votive masses. Verily^ 
^ the poet sang, — 

" But Inymen most renowned for devilish deeds, 
J^ilborecl iit distariyo biill behind the priest!" 

PoUuIi. 
I am fellow citizens, yours, &c. 

W. C. B. 



248 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

LETTER XVIII. 

to THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Popery condemned by Reason, Scripture, and the Fathers^ 

" One is led to imagine that the Pope is no other than the incarnation of the ancient idol 
Mammon, and that the priests are his tax gatherers.'^— McGaviiu 

Fellow Citizens: — I have at length, arrived with you, at Purgatory; and if 
you have no fears of entering into the priestly fabric, I propose a thorough investiga- 
tion of it. It is the temple of Mammon incarnate ; wherein his Holiness, the genius 
of the place, and the worshipped idol, has erected, before all the world, his "traffic in 
human souls ;" — and where he deals in purgatorial flames, and "souls of men;" sur- 
rounded by his money changers, and his " tax gatherers, the priests." 

That some, although few of even your priests, have believed in purgatory, I am 
rather disposed to admit. For I find a few instances of even your priests, in Ireland, 
actually bequeathing all the little money they had, — (one really left £500 sterl.) — 
for masses for their souls — it seems to be the only evidence, that such men can give, 
of the sincerity of their faith in it. But as it respects the great mass, nearly all the 
body of the priesthood, from the pope, down to the humblest priest, there are few in 
America, and almost none in Europe, who ever supposed, for a moment, that yoiii 
priests believe in their own purgatory. For my part, I cannot think so meanly of 
their intellects, as even to insinuate that they do believe in any such thing. It is a 
difficult matter enough, to many of them, to believe in even a heaven, or a hell, — 
not to mention a purgatory! Your priests can tell you the names of many a pope, 
who made heaven and hell, and a judgment seat, the subject of their merriment ; and 
^of another, namely, pope LeoX., who used to call Christianity "a pretty and profit- 
able fable, withal!" And an author of no mean note, quotes from some of your old 
writers, the following instructive anecdote of an eminent cardinal of Rome. One 
day his eminence, disposed to be talkative, began to " pose" his chaiplain, and try the 
extent of his profound, theology. " How many masses, I pray you," said he gravely-^— 
*^will it take to pray a soul out of purgatory?" The chaplain was struck dumb at 
the weighty question* After a painful silence, during which he had rummaged every 
comer of his brain, and exhausted his knowledge of the Fathers, he frankly told the 
truth, — a thing not usual in Rome, — that he could not tell his eminence: that it was 
prodigiously beyond his depth." 

"Well, I will tell thee !" said his eminence, with a condescending air, — while the 
godly chaplain was all eye, and ear, to receive the awfully important discovery; " /f 
will take as many masses to relieve a soul out of purgatory, as it will take snoiv halls to 
heat our oven !" See the Preservative against popery p. 113. 114. Glasgow Ptot. 
chap. 76. 

In tracing the history of purgatory, like the other prominent and peculiar cere- 
monies of your priest's church, we find it imported from the pagans. We disco- 
ver it many hundred years before the birth of Christ. Nay, oq the pages of Homer, 
Plato, and Virgil, we discover the heathen fiction. I refer to the Odyssy, Lib. 12, 
and Virgil, ^neid Lib. 6; where, in the former, the ghosts of Elpenor utter their sor- 
rows : and in the latter, Palinurus utters his ; and where the ceremonies, used to relievt 



ROaL\N CATHOLIC COI^TROVERST. 249 

them, as described by these great poets, are remarkably similar to those of the Roman 
catholics, used to relieve the Roman ghosts in the improved model of purgatory. 

This pagan fiction of purgatory, was unknown to the true christian church in the 
Jirstjive centuries. The man is no scholar, nor at all read in genuine history, who 
will risk his reputation in affirming the contrary. I admit that a few individuals, 
philosiphers, and monks held this from early ages; and that these men were nominal 
christians. For, it is a painful fact that when Christianity mounted the throne of the 
Caesars, in the person of Constaniine the Great, paganism became unfashionable, and 
unprofitable ; and Christianity became of course, profitable to men of rank, and to 
philosophers. And these " great" men when they cameinto the church, did not " put 
off the old man" — they did not strip off paganism, and its pagan tenets. They put 
on the mask of the hypocrite, over the pagan man! A thing, by the way, done by 
millions in Europe, and perpetuated to this day. Hence with paganism, the rites of 
this system, and its doctrines found their way into the early christian church. But, 
as a systematic tenet, purgatory was not tolerated in the Roman cailiolic church, until 
the days of pope Gregory, the great, or, the end of the sixth century. 

It is true, Origen, Jerome, and Augusnne have left some wild speculations on it ; 
which indicate that they had been occasionally staggered by the extravagant specula- 
tions of the baptized pagan philosophers, who had crept into the church. But we shall- 
examine the Fathers presently. 

I showed in a former letter, that the leading rites of "Holy Mother" were founded 
in fanaticism, and by the visions of fanatic "saints." This was emphatically til© 
case with purgatory. As soon as pope Gregory was known to favor this wild, pagan 
fiction, every monk's cell began to team with visions, apparitions, and miraculous 
disclosures, — all designed to give a divine sanction to the purgatory of the heathen; 
and to baptize it, as a christian reality. "The flames of ^tna and Vesuvius," says 
Archbishop Wake in his "Discourse on Purgatory," "were thought to be kindled 
on purpose to torment souls. Some were seen, in vision, broiling on gridirons ; others 
roasting on spits; some burning before a fire; others shivering in water; and not a 
few smoking in a chimney." Nay, says he, the way to purgatory was found out; it 
was situated in the centre of the earth ; and one way to it, lay through Sicily, another^ 
in Pozzoeto ; and another v.as found out in favored Ireland ; namely the mouth of St. 
Patrick's cave ! 

During the seventh and eighth centuries, there were mighty disputations about its 
locality, and the species of its torments. The disputants, wholly taken up about the 
circumstances, gradually wrought themselves into the beliefof the main fiction. Yet 
even in the bosom of Rome, many opposed the ridiculous folly. In 1146, Otto Fri- 
eingcnsis, in Chron. lib. 8. cap. 2(), thus writes, — "That there is in hell, a place of 
purgatory, wherein such as arc to be saved, are either troubled with darkness, or 
decocted with the fire of expiation, some do affirm.'^ See Morn. Exer. p. 252. This 
conveys the fact that all did not then believe this popish fiction. " And even pope 
Adrian," says Mr. Gavin, "confessed that thei-e was no mention of it in the scripture, 
or in the writings of the Fathers." See Master Key, vol. i. p. 16G, <^^c. And an an- 
cient Latin writ(;r gravely tells us that the Jesuit Cottonus was so puzzled foi- a text of 
scripture to confirm it infallibly — but which he never could discover, " ut ab ipso de- 
mone, &c. that he did not blush to implore from the devil, a passage of scripture most 
apt to establish it." Rut he got no answer! For even the devil himself, it seems, 
could find no proof of it from holy writ ! 



250 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTKOVERSr* 

But, like every Other enormity of Rome, designed to advance the power of priestcraft, 
and pour in immeasurable revenues into the pope's treasures, and the priests' purses, 
it was sustained by all the weight of the priesthood : and was, finally, established by 
the council of Florence in the year 1430. And therefore, it is, properly speaking, 
only 403 years old ! And lest your priests should venture to call this the invention 
of heretics, I shall here, give a quotation out of their famous writer, Johannes Roffen, 
quoted in Polyd. Virg. De Invent. Rerum. Lib. 8. cap. 1. "Nemo certe, &c. No one 
true believer now doubts of purgatory, whereof, notwithstanding among the ancients, 
there is very little, or no mention at all. The Greeks, to this day, do not believe a 
purgatory, let who will, read the commentaries of the ancient Greeks. And the La- 
tins did not all of them together, receive the truth of this matter, but by little and 
little. Neither, indeed, was the faith either of purgatory or pardons, so needful in th% 
primitive church, asnoiv it is." See Poly. Virg. De Invent. Rerum, Lib. 8. cap. 1. — 
And Morn. Ex. p. 251. 

This is from two of the most candid Romish writers that ever wrote. For, besides 
admitting that purgatory and pardons are modern inventions, and recent innovations ; 
they frankly assign the true reason of the invention. In primitive times, the holy, 
and good men did not live the luxurious, and proud lives of Roman tyrants, and ghostly 
despots, wallowing in pride, crimes, and luxuries, beyond bounds ! Now, the court 
of Rome " needs" the revenues of purgatory, to sustain their pomp, and the infamous 
■course of their lives ! 

In the progress of time, the monks, and friars have greatly improved upon this 
lucrative fiction. Mr. Gaven in his Master Key of Popery, vol. i. p. 166, &c. has 
given us much light on this matter. And he was well able to do it. He had been long 
a Spanish priest, and had been deeply instructed in the system of this ghostly bank- 
ing business: and he knew the whole craft of adapting purgatory, and its " apart- 
jnewts," to the greatest advantage. He was converted from popery to Christianity, in 
1715, 

The priests and friars, says he, have distributed the dungeons of purgatory into 
eight apartments ; corresponding to the eight classes, into which they have divided 
society. And this division is shrewdly made to increase their gain ; which is always 
the only, aiid all absorbing object of these holy despots! There is an apartment for 
each according to their wealth and rank. For, assuredly a king, or a gentlemen would 
rather endure a more rigid, and hot fire of purgatory, and pay higher to get out of it, 
than to be crammed in, among coblers, and beggars, even in a less hot atmosphere ! ! 
Hence, says Mr. Gaven, they place the poor people in the Jirst apartment, where the 
fury of the fire is the least. In the second, they put gentlemen, gentlewomen, and 
tradesmen's wives ! In the third, which is hotter than either of these, they dispose of 
the laxlies of quality ! In the fourth, — hotter still,-— are placed merchants, and trades- 
men. In the ffth, which is very hot, indeed, they put noblemen. In the sixth, 
which is amazingly hot, they arrange the grandees, to be properly scorched. The 
seventh, which is terribly fierce in its flames, contains princes. And the eighth, the 
superlative degree, the deepest, darkest, and hottest of all, contains kings! Each of 
these has a tariff of prices nicely, and accurately adjusted by the ghostly financiers. 
And, what displays a shrewd policy in this novel trafic, there is power lodged with 
the disinterested, and holy priests, to change, cit any time, the lodgings of these people., 
That is to say^ should a poor rnan, or a tradesman get rich, — he can buy the priest's 
interesty for a suitable suni; fo traflsfer his poor dead ancestor into a more genteel aparU 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 25l 

iiient, in purgatory ! He can buy the priest's influence with *' the court of heaven/' 
to transfer the soul, for instance, into that of " the gentlemen." And should he grow 
very rich, and rise in rank, he can buy the priest's prayers, to transfer him even into 
the apartment of " noblemen !" It is true, the elevation will make thQ poor soul feel 
hotter flames : but men must pay not only money to the priest, but also bear pains, t» 
be fashionable, and to be in genteel and noble company in purgatory ! 

This is quite an important branch of the ghostly trade in those lands, where all 
ranks are completely priest-ridden ; as in Spain, Italy, and Austria. Mr. Gaveii 
gives us instances to illustrate this. "A cobler's wife, ignorant and proud, discovered 
that her father was among the beggars in purgatory. She implored the aid of a friar, 
of the Franciscan order to elevate him. "How many masses can you s-parefor it?'''' 
said the priest. She said ^t^^o. It was too little. " He is among the beggars, — even 
the lowest." The lady wept ; and promised him more money, as soon as she got it. 
And the quantum being duly fixed, and paid, the "holy" priest graciously transfer- 
red him to the fourth apartment. The poor soul, no doubt, was unspeakably mor© 
tormented ! But then, his daughter after this, boasted that she was the daughter of a 
rich merchant ! See Gaven vol. i. p. 166, &c., Glasg. Prot. vol. i. chap. 77. 

Could I find room, I might give my reader anecdotes to illustrate the good account 
to which the priests convert their purgatory. In Ireland they have Penny a Week 
Societies, called Purgatorial Societies. And those v\^ho pay into this "charity" a 
penny a week, are entitled when they die, to so many masses. And thus, by paying 
before hand, and their kind friends paying for them after they are dead, they get th© 
better chance of being, probably, sooner out ! At any rate, as the priest gets all th© 
proceeds of "this charity," he receives by this ingenious scheme, double pay! See a 
cc^y of "the Constitution of a Purgatorian Society," in Glasg. Prot. vol. i. ch. 77. 

The appropriate sale of these purgatorial fires, for cash payments, has brought im- 
mense weahh to Holy Mother; and filled, to overflowing, the coffers of men, bound 
by the holiest oaths, to their vows of perpetual poverty ! 

And they have been rigidly exact, and shrewd in the collection of these wages of 
their perjury and damnation! They have grinded the faces of the poor! They have 
taken from the poor widow her last mite, and the very garments, and the last mor- 
sel from the weeping orphan! Their cunning has had no bowels of mercy! Yet, 
occasionally their knavery has met its match : and they have sustained losses from 
men more shrewd, though not more wicked than themselves. 

A certain heir of a profligate father was long importuned by the disinterested priest 
to pay for masses to relieve "his poor broiling father!" Tired with his importuni- 
ties, he bade him go on, and relieve him. An apartment in the castle, was arranged 
for him ; and the son remained by the devout priest, to witness the masses, and watch 
the holy process of deliverance. At each proper pause, and the close of amass, down 
went the gold. The priest went on: and the young lord still counted out the gui- 
neas! Masses must be over by twelve. It was now eleven. "How comes he out?" 
said the youth. "We have him nearly all out," — says the priest, as he melo- 
diously chanted the mass; with a sublime devotion, quickened by the music of 
the descending guineas! "Hold on," cries the youth, "we must have him out 
before twelve !" A large heap of gold now lay on the table. " Is he not out yet ?" 
cried his lordship. "Patience; my good sir, your father was a tough old sinner,'* 
says the grave priest: "he has been pretty deep in the fires, audit needs many masses 
to bring him up !" Down went more money : and another mass was chanted ; and the 



SS2 ROMA?f CATHOLIC CO-NTEOVEBSt 

smoke oi the incense ascended. At length the priest, stispecting that he could get no 
more money, exclaimed, "He is out: he is fairly on his legs I" "Glad am I of it," 
says the 3-outh; "and now being on his legs, let him shift for himself: for he had a 
pair of good heels, when he was in this world." And saying this, he swept up all the 
money ; and wishing the astonished and confounded priest a good morning, he left 
him to plan how to be more watchful in all fumre barterings of the kind i 

The anecdote of priest TAom of Dublin. I have heard related by an Irish gentleman. 
1 have, since, seen it published in the Glasgow Protestant vol. i. ch. 75. And the 
Editor of the Philanthropic Gazette, published it in Oct. 27, 1819; and assured the 
pubhc that he was responsible for the truth of it. A landlord in Publin called on 
one of his tenants for the rent. The poor woman apologized for not being able to pay 
it; and informed him that she had appropriated it to " a hvly use.^'' "In short," says 
she, "the holy praste came along the other day. and says to me, 'have you heard 
from your husband?' " "Saj-s I — and how can I, when he is dead, — and sure be 
is !" " Oh ! yes — but have you not heard the great news ? A mighty crov, d were pass- 
ing over the bridge of purgatoiy to heaven; and, och! and ill luck to it, — it fell do\\-n. 
and a mighty ntunber fell on the wrong side — and your husband is one of them ! 
And nov,-, I am come to get your share of the money to help to build up the bridge." 
"And sure am I," continued she, "I could do no less than give him all the money I 
had, — for he assured me it would be an expensive job to rebuild it 1"' 

I have the pleasure of saj'ing that the gentleman had this impostor brought before 
a magistrate —-who whined out, as he reluctantly restored the money to the poor 
widow, — "rhat heonl}^ wanted the use of the money for a few days, an'^ played this 
trick to obtain it, — and that he was coming, at any rate, to restore it." 

I shall only add here, that there are hundreds of respectable gentlemen in this city, 
NVho have witnessed, at an Irish catholic funeral, what is called the auction for the 
soul. After getting all he can, at the mass, the priest takes a plate and goes round, 
in the house, and among the crowd, and out of doors assembled at the funeral, call- 
ing out, " Who will give a leetle more to help the poor soul ? Will none of you have a 
lectk more pity? Will not one of you give us more? Remember the soul of your 
poor neighbor now in purgatorj^!" And thus he continues to dan, until his own, and 
the people's patience is completely exhausted. And no wonder he is zealous in this 
"charity" for "the poor soul ;" for, all this money goes into his purse, for his ovvti use! 

In this happy country (which may God mercifully preserve from the withering 
blight of priestcraft) we know nothing of the practical evils of this, and the other parts 
of the popish sj-stem. Ask our enlightened travellers, in Europe, and in South Ameri- 
ca ; ask our bighlv intelligent Naval officers, who have been there. They vrill tell 
you what they have seen and heard, a mere tithe of which I am not able to disclose, 
I present the following specimen from which we may form some idea of the jugglery, 
and practical absiurdities, with which the fiction of purgatory has been inseparably- 
connected. It is copied from a paper stuck up in the churches of Madrid, in Spain, 
three years ago. 

"The sacred and royal bank of piety has relieved from purgator^^ from its 
establisliment, 1721, to November 1825, 1,030,395 eonk, at an expense of £1,720,437 
11,402 do., from Novimber 1826 to Nov. 1827, 15,276, 

1,041,797 souls. Total expense : £1,725,713. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 253 

** The number of masses calculated to accomplish this pious work, was 558,921 : 
sconsequently each soul cost one mass and nitie tenths, or thirty-four shillings and 
fourpence." 

Behold ! on the one hand, the economy of the Roman church! Souls brought t® 
heaven Deo nolente, autvolente, v/hether God will or not, at the rate of seven dollar*, 
and thirty -five cents, and a half, each! And on the other, behold! the amount of 
money brought into the priest's hands, namely; seven miUions, three hundred and 
thirty one thousand, four hundred and twenty two dollars, and forty cents f And all thisr 
in Madrid alone, and for purgatory merely, and in a hundred and live years ! Who 
can form an estimate of the whole amount plundered by these ghostly robbers, from 
the people, through the Roman catholic church, by this and all the rest of the basest 
and the most diabolical of false pretences ? If a culprit in our criminal courts, is 
sent to the States' Pr'-Mon for plundering his neighbor out of a few hundred doUars, 
under pretences, and by forgeries far less atrocious than those — 'what do the Roman 
priests not merit, at the judgment bar of the nations, for the countless sums they have 
plundered out of the pockets of their insulted and wretched victims ! 

May I be permitted to beg yoar very candid attention to this sore and alarming 
grievance, enacted daily before your eyes. 

I am, fellow citizens, 3^ours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



LETTER XIX. 



TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Popery condemned by Scripture and the Fathers. 

" Pope Gregory the Saint, saw the soid of Pascasius hailing in the hot baths of St. An- 
gelo !" " Bishop Theobald heard a naked, siivering soul crying oat of a lumn of ice ; and 
prayed it out by vieUing its icy prison !" " St. Bernard never could decide whether the 
pains of purgatory we.e injlre, in ice, or something else." Greg. Dial. IV. 40. — Hottino-er, 
VI. 1366.— Bern. 1719. 

Fellow Citizens: — I shall now go on to show the condemnation of purgatory, 
First, reason and scripture condemn it. Here, let me observe, that we do all adn it 
a purification of the soul, by afflictions, as it were, by fire, under the grace of God. 
"Thou hast sent a fire into our bones;" "we have gone through fire and water." 
These are the instrumentaL causes ; but, as the meritorious and efficient cause, "the 
blood of Christ purgeth us from all sins." Heb. ix. 14. 

This is the only purgatory admitted of, by the primitive church,, and by us. And 
to this purpose we quote Origen on Levit. lib. 9. " Without doubt we shall feel the 
unquenchable fire, unless we shall now entreat the Lord to send down from heaven, 
a purgatory of fire unto us, by which worldly desires may be utterly consumed in 
our minds." 

But the Roman purgatory is a part of hell, and is in the future world, and is entered 
after death. Here all that enccr, do finally reach heaven, after they have been purged 
from their "venial sins," and "■ have satisfied the temporal punishment for their mor- 
tal sins." From this they are relieved by solemn masses, and the euffrcigcs, or vows 
of the church. See Canons of the Council of Trent Scss. 25. 

23 



254 R0aA5 CATHOLIC CO^TTROVEEST, 

The texts of scripture pressed in for mere show, to sustain this i'mpious, but lucra- 
tive fiction, are these. Matt. xii. 32. "There is a sin that will not be forgiven Lo 
this world, or the world to come." Now, say your profoundly learned 'ogiciansy 
*'this implies that other sins may be forgiven in the world to come." This is a false 
conclusion; he is speaking only of this sin and of no other; and it is utteily absurd 
to draw from a particular premise, any such general conclusion. To settle the point, 
lei Matthew, in ver. 31, and Mark iii. 29 explain their own expression, — ''He hath 
never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." And in the words, — "io 
this world and the world to come," or more literally, in this age, and the age to come,''' 
our Lord seems to reprove th2 idle traditions of ths Jews, that in " the age to coiae,^^ or 
the days of Messiah, "grace would be much more liberal; and reverse more rigid 
decisions." No, says our Lord, this sin will not be forgiven in this Judaic state, nor 
in the new dispensation of Messiah. That is, in the words of Christ, recorded by 
Mark, — " it will never be forgiven." But after all, what has this text to do with 
the purgatory of your friests ? They must be conscious that what it speaks of, and 
their purgatory, are two perfectly diSerent things. This text speaks of ^'■forgiveness 
of sin.'' Now, purgatory has nothing to do wdth "forgiveness." It is noplace of 
" forgiveness." The priests themselves declare it to be a place of suffering until th© 
victims have, by these torments, given siil the leqnixed. satisfaction ! How improper 
is it to appeal to such a text ! 

The next text pressed in by you is, Matt. v. 25. 26. " If thou be cast into prison ; 
verily, thou shalt, by no means, come out thence, until thou hast paid the uttermost 
farthing!" Here the "learned priests," find purgatory, not hell, in the prison; the 
"pay" is human suffering: and "venial sins" are "the farthings!" But, they have 
not yet proved that it is purgatory, and not hell, that is here meant. And, again, they 
leave this point unproved, that this infinite debt ever can be paid. But the finally 
impeniteni never can pay ir. Therefore, they never can get out ? This is the expla- 
nation given by all judicious expositors : and that by your own Jerome. Hear bis 
words: — "Semper non exiturum esse, &c. He will never come out, because h^ 
will always he paying the last farthing ; while he pays the eternal punisJivient of his 
earthly sins.'' Tom. v. p. 684, in Lament. Lib. 1. cap. 1. Paris Edit. 1602. 

There is another text, on which they lay the greatest stress; 1 Cor. iii. 13. — 15. 
" The fire shall try ever}-- man's work," — "if any man's work shall be burned, be 
shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire." There is no allu- 
sion here, to any future, middle state. The apostle speaks of different preachers 
building on the foundation laid ; his doctrine is his " works" here spoken of. Now, it 
can have no reference to purgatory: for, there, you say, men are tormented in their 
souls ; but this text says, " the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is." 
Again, this fire tries the work of every man; as well those who build gold, as those 
who build stubble. But, by your own confession, every man does not go to purgatorv' : 
the pure enter heaven, and the atrocious men- dying "in mortal sins," go to hell. 
Finally, it is not affirmed here that "a manis saved by fre," but " he is saved as by 
fre." Hence it has no reference whatever to the purgatorial flames; but to that 
purification, which is effected by trials operating on his soul, as it were by fire. 

But their Herculean club by which their unique Romish logic levels all oppositioii, 
is taken from 2 Maccab. xii. 43. &c. "He sent the 2,000 drachms to Jerusalem, to be 
laid out in sacrifices for the dead. It is a pious and wholesome thought to pray for the 
dead, that they may be loosed from their sins." This is the form in which Bellarn^ine 



HOMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 255 

<|\lotesit. But he is guilty of perverting the Greek of the original writer. It runs 
thus—" He sent 200, not 2,000 drachms, to Jerusalem, to buy sacrifices," " pro peca- 
to,"foreiD,— or a sin offering. Thewords,— " promortuis," "for the dead," is a sheer 
forgery of that writer ! Maccabees, it seems, sent money for the purchase of victims 
for a sin offering. But in reference to the writer's recommendation "of praying for 
the dead, &c." it is of no more weight than a sentence from Voltaire, or Pope Hilde- 
brand ! The book was not written by inspiration: the author apologizes for his defects 
in the close of it : and the Jews never received it into their canon, and this, Bellar- 
mine has confessed; and what is unspeakably more to the confusion of ail your Jesuits, 
St. Gregory the pope pronounced the Maccabees "ea: librisnon canoncis, not canoni- 
cal books," See Greg. Mor. Lib. 19. in cap. 39, Beati Jobi. Benedict. Edit. Paris 1705. 

It is manifest, I trust, to every unprejudiced mind, that there is no one solitary 
passage in all the holy Bible, which can be pressed in to give any countenance to the 
Roman fiction of purgatory : that there is no one solitary sentence in it which can be 
tortured even to utter the most distant allusion to it ! Hence the scriptures are utterly 
against it. Besides, the Bible declares that " Christ hy his one offering, forevtr 
perfected them that are sanctified.^'' And "there: is no other name under heaven by 
which we can be saved, but by Christ's name." It is the one, great, uniform doctrine, 
in scripture, that '■'■tht hlood of Christ washes aivay all sin.'' But this doctrine of 
purgatory sets up a rival to Christ's atonement; and teaches, with infidel audacity, 
that millions enter heaven by the merits of their "own torments and prayers for the 
dead." Hence it is as opposite to God's will, expressed in the Bible, as is the deadliest 
infidelity of Voltaire, and Hume ! 

The following texts I shall merely set down, as condemning your doctrine, Eccles. 
ix. 10. Eom. viii. 1.—2 Cor. v. 1. and ver. 10. Rev. xiv. 13. 

And, here, I might call your attention to many extravagant absurdities, in the doc- 
torine of your priests' purgatory. Bui I shall mention only a few things to prove how- 
much it is abhorrent from reason, and scripture. First:— li is founded on the suppo- 
sition that God Almighty, after having forgiven us all our sins, does yet punish and 
torture us for them ! Let it be distinctly understood, that you teach that no one goes into 
purgatory, hut those whose sins are pardoned ; for when a man dies under mortal sin, 
or is unpardoned, he is doomed to hell. Now, here you teach that, after God has. 
forgiven uy, and while Christ loves us, and the Holy Ghost comforts us, — we are yet 
sent into ineffable tortures for thousands of years ! ! Can any man in the exercise of 
his reason, with the Bible before his eyes, believe that your god who presides over 
your purg.itory, is really the compassionate God of our salvation? 

Seccnd:-^Your priests in their purgatory, represent God as punishing those whom 
he loves, with horrid tortures, of inexpressible flames on the soul, merely for the pu-. 
nishmenVssake. They admit that guilt is taken away, they admit that those in purga-. 
Lory have their sins all pardoned; and that they "are in a state of per/cc^ grace.'* 
These pains are endured as a punishment, (tremendously severe,) for venial sins, and 
something or other, called "-temporal jmnishment due for shi, — and, — "the crime oC 
punishrneiit!" " Cum realu culpa3, culpis suis remissis." These I quote from Bel- 
larmin , Do Purg. Lib. 2. cap. 1. sub fine. Now, when guilt is removed, is not pu- 
nishment removed? And when these men in your purgatory, "«re pardoned and in a 
state of perfect grace,'' can any man under the sun, tell us what the ''crime of punish- 
ment" means? It either has no meaning ; or it represents the merciful Father of our 
jBouls, as torturing his own pardoned children, in the flames, (or the mere sake of piu 



256' ROJfA.V CATHOLIC C0>-TR0V£R5T. 

Bishing them! ''Cum reatu culjpa!'"' See Dr. Sherlock's Vind. of his Preservatne 
against F'Tjery, p. 71. 72. 

Third: — This doctrine of purgatory, in addition to its ineflabie absurdities, repre- 
sents your rriests as men cljolutely destitute of the bowels of humanity, — as unspeak- 
ably more c, j.tl than savages offering up hunuin sacrifices ! I take the evidence from 
their ovnx statements. Here are thousands of their own "beloved flocks," their for- 
mer kind, and obliging neighbors; their very " dear friends,"' " rolling in the hottest, 
and most horrid flames;" all of them "in indescribable tortures, and agonies." And, 
yet, O monsters ! they refuse to pray them out : even although, by ;heir own confes- 
sion, they can, by a word of their lips, or by a mass or two. and a little brief prayer, g«t 
them free from their agonies i Unless the stipulated exaction oi money he, paid down, 
they will not spend one breath. — they will not be at the cost of even a cheap wafer^ 
and a few masses, to pray out their dearest friends, or one individual cf their "very 
dear fli>ck 1" They whine, and cant, and hagg-le about a few coppers, v-nile their 
"beloved friends," "ar whom "they feel so much," are "broiling in the fiercest 
flames!" May the mercy of heaven deliver me, and you, my fellow citizens, from 
the jaws, and fangs of these Romish tigers, compared to whom the red lion of Africa 
is tender mercy. He devours the bleeding, lacerated body : tliey devour substance, 
and body, and soul, at once I 

J^ma^Zi/ ;— PuR&ATOHY is condemned by the FaiherSc 

1. Jr.^tin MartyT taught thus : — " ^f.Ura h &c. Afcer the departure of the soul from 
the body, there is instantly made a distinction between the just and unjust: — the 
souls of the righteous are brought to pi.radise with the angels : the souls of the \^'icked 
to places in hell. Respons. ad Orthodox. Quest. 75 : Usher p. 121. 

2. Laciantius says : — ^'* Let no one imagine that a soul is judged immediately after 
death, for all aie detained in one common custody, till the time arrives, when the 
supreme Judge examines their merits. Then those whose righteousness is approved, 
shall receive the reward of immortality^" Czc. He then notices the doom of the 
wicked. He thus taught the Limhis patrum, but he had no idea of a purgatory. 
Tom. i. p. 574, De Vit. Beata. Lib. 7. Paris Edit. 1748. 

3. Hilaiy, in 358, says : — " Futuri boni, &c. There is nope of future gco:l, when* 
departing from this body into the entrance of the heavenly kingdom, all the faithful, 
shall be preserved in the custody of the Lard ; being placed, mean time, in the bosom 
of Abraham ; the approach to which is forbidden to the wicked by the intervening 
gulph." On Psalm 2, also on Ps. 120, p. 978, Paris Edit. 1652. 

4. Cyprian is full and expUcit in the tesamony that he never heard of modern 
purgatory. In his Book De mortalitatey section 2, he says : " Ejus est, &c. It is for 
him to fear death, who is not wuling to go to Christ. It is for him to be unwilling toi 
go to Christ, who does not believe that he begins to reign with Christ," &c. Thus he 
represem? death as " our going to Christ :" and " all who live by faith, when they di-^ 
go to Christ." And quoting the words of Simeon he adds: — -'This proves and wit- 
nesses that the servants of God then have peace, — then enjoy free and quiet rest^ 
when, being drawn from these storms of the world, we seek the haven of an eternal 
seat, and security ; when halting paid the penalty of death, we arrive at immortality.'* 
Again, in section 11, he says, — "The righteous are called to a refreshing; the ud-> 
righteous are dragged away into torment : safety is quickly granted to the faithful \ 
hut punishment to the wickedv" See the Oxford Edit. 1682; or the Edit, of Psme^ 
lius of 1593, which I use. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 257 

5. Tertullian, so far from believing in these tormenting fiames to- purify God's 
people, or even pitying the dead, says; — "Christum, &c. We injure Christ, wheu 
we do not bear, with fortitude, die departure of those who are called away by him ; 
as if they were to be pitied ! 1 desire, says the apostle, to be received, and 
to be with Christ. How superior does he show the desire of the christian to be! 
If, therefore, we impatiently grieve for any who have obtained this desire, we show 
that we are unwilling to obtain it!" If this Father had believed in your purgatory ^, 
he would, with you, have pitied, and mourned for them, in the flames! If he had 
believed in your purgatory, he would not have thus united our departure at death, with, 
our being immediately v^ith Christ. Tert. De Patientia. cap. 9, Paris Edit. 1675. 

6. Gregory Nyssen says: " SLrrnep dvp &.c. As by a certain abuse of speech, we call- 
a bay of the sea, an arm, or a bosom, so it seemeth to me thai the word signilies the 
exhibition of those immeasurable good things, by the name of a bosom, into which all 
men that sail by a virtuous course through this ^jresent life, when they loose from 
hence, put their souls into a good bosom; or as it were, into, a haven free from dan-, 
ger." Dial. De Anim. et Resur. Tom. ii. p. 651, Paris Edit. 

7. Gregory Nazianzen taught,—" 12j /J^Ar^ov &c., — that it is better to be corrected. 
and purged nov/, than to be sent to the torment there, where the time of punishing 
is, and not of purging." Orat, 15, in Plag. Grandinis: and Usher's Works against 
Popery, p. 123. 

8. St. Basil thus expressed himself,—" O-uro,- h auov &c. This is the time of repent- 
ance, — the Either life after this, is that of retribution: this, of woridng ; that of 
rewarding." In Proem, in liegul. See Usher, p. 123. 

9. S., Ambrose taught that death "is a certain haven to those who had long been 
tossed in the sea of life."—" It makes not a man's state worse; but such as it findetli 
in every one, even ?uch it reserves unto future judgment : and refreshes with rest.'*' 
'^ It is a passage trom,; corruption to incorruption ; from mortality to immortality; 
from trouble to rest." De Bono Mortis, cap. 4. 

10. An ancient Greek Father, usually bound up with Justin Martyr's works, says : 
"M£ra<5£&c. But after the departure from the body, a separation of the just and 
unjust takes place. The righteous go into paradise with angels, unto the vision of 
Christ; and the souls of the wicked into hell, &c." Q^iiest. et Resp. ad Orthodoxos, 
p. 437. Finch, 206. 

11. Ju.-tin Martyr writes:—'' Ta. k &c. When we assert that the souls of the unjust 
are in existence after death, and are sensibly tortured ; but that ine souls of the good 
are happy, free from punishment ; we think we sang the same things that the poets 
and philosophers have done." Apolog. fro Christ.. 2, Paris Edit. 1515. TIius he 
believed in tivo states only, — heaven and hell. He lived in A. D. 150. 

12. Cyril o. Jerusalem, says — '< 'O m^reojp &c. He who believes, in the Son of God 
is not judged, but is translated frora death to life. The just, indeed were tried through 
many years, but that wliich they obtained by the diligence of along life, Jesus freely 
confery on us, in one hour. For, if you believe, you shall be saved, and transferred- 
to paradise, by him who therein introduced the thief." Cat. 5, Oxf. Edit. 1503. 

I do not conceal from you that the priests who can read Greek, may 11 ud out a 
passage in this Cyril, somewhat favorable to modern popish errors. But it is com- 
fortable to reflect that we can produce you two credible witnesses, that Cyril was not 
deemed by the prinritive men, quite orthodox af(cr liis later vagnries. " Cyril's faith 
was suspected." Ruiuuus and Jerome observe that lie often changed hisVaiih, gi^tl^ 



^.v 



258 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

GommuDioQ." Dwpin denies that he did change his faith, but these two Fathers bad 
the best means of ascertaining this. See Dj pin's Eccles. Hist. 4 cent. 

13. Cyril of Alexandria speaks thus decidedly; — "^Asivyap &c. For I think we 
ought to decide it, as being highly probable that the souls oi^ the saints, vrhen they 
depart from their bodies, are commanded unto God's goodness, as unto tb€ bands of 
a most dear Father; and do not remain on the earth, as some unbelievers have ima- 
gined, until they have had the honor of a funeral ; neither are they carried, as the 
souls of the wicked are, unto a place of immeasurable punishment, that is into hell; 
but rather fly to the hands of the Father of all ; — our Lord and Savior having first 
prepared a vray for us." la Johan. Evang. Lib. xii. cap. 36, Tom. iv. p. 1069, 
Paris Edit. 1638. 

14. Chrysostom writes thus, in opposuion to purgatory : "The kingdom of heaveD 
is like unto a man that is an householder. The man that is the householder, is Christ, 
to whom beaven and earth are as a house. But his families are celestial, and terres- 
trial ; for whom he builds a house, with three chambers, that is hell, heaven, and 
eajrth. The combatants dwell upon the earth; the vanquished in hell; and the con- 
ffuerors in heaven." Homil. in Math, xii, 

15. St. Athanasius wrole thus : — -'- Ovksuti &c. That is not death that befalleth tht 
just ; it is a translation ; they are carried out of this world into eternal rest: they go 
as o'lt of a prison, from their wearisome life, to the good things prepared to them." 
De. Virgin. See also Usher, p, 121 . 

16. St. Jerome, in Epist. 25, comforting Paula, on the death of her daughter^ 
mentioas only the two states, — " hell, and its eternal fires, and glory to which believ- 
ers are instantly conducted by angels." See Usher, p. 123. 

ir. St. Augustine, in some parts of his w-orks, seems rather inclined to go witb- 
Origen, as if he inclined to waver respecting the eternal pains of hell. In his Tom. 
vi. p. 222, Enchir, ad Laur. he speaks of it being "not incredible that there is a cer- 
tain purgatoriaa fire after this life," and "it may be inquired v-hether there be such or 
ikins', &c." H^nce, being douhtful, it cannot be supposed to have been, with him, an 
sirtiv-ie of faith. But, notwithstanding the idle blunderings of your priests, and a 
sciolist who lately ihade some quotatior.s out of Augustine, it is manifest, that this 
eminent Father, in his best, reflecting moments, goes decidedly against purgatory. 
Hear his words, — "After this life there remains no compuncti-on, or satisfaction." 
Again '.—There^ is all remission of sin ; here, be temptations to sin ; here, is the evil 
from v^hich w^e desire to be delivered ; but, there, (in the other state,) are none of 
these." Again,—" We are not here without sin ; but we shall go hence without 
ain." Gee Homil. 50.. Tom. x. Enchir. c. 115. Perkins, vol. i. p. 607. folio. More 
^ecide-hy still speaks he in his book De Peccat. Merit, et Remiss. Lib. 1. cap. 28. 
*' jT/ier? is no middle jdace far any, he must needs be with the devil icho is not ivitk 
Christ.'' Again,- — " The catholic faith resting on divine authority, believes ihejirst 
place the Jcingdom of heaven : and the second, eell ! A third we are v/holly igno- 
rant of." Again, — " There is no place for the amending of our ways, but in this life ; 
for after this life, every one shall receive according to what he seeketh after in this." 

18. St. Bernard in Epist. 266, says, " What is it to thee, and thine earthly vestures, 
that bein^ about to go to heaven, thou hast the more glory to put on instantly ?■' 

19. In like manner the venerable Bede speaks in the most decisive terms. Here 
are his words, on Psalm vi. " Here only is the"place for mercy; after this world., 
there is place c- ri^T,' /or jtt5?ice." 



Sl<?MAN CATBOilC CONt&OvKftST. 259 

20. Anselm Oil 2 Cor. v. ssys of (be pardoned,-— " Instantly on their leaving th« 
flesh, they do rest in heavenly faith" 

21. Epiphanius asserts that;— "The saints are in honor; they rest in glory; and 
their depariare hence, is into perfection." See Adv. Hseres. 78, in the end : Perkins^ 
vol. ii. p. 569, folio. 

22. Olympiodorus says,— " E;' 'w Jc &c. In whatever place, therefore, v.hetherof 
light or of darkness; of evil doing, or of virtue, a man is taken at his death, in that 
doth he remain : either in light with the just, and with Christ : or with the wicked, 
and the prince of this world." Expos, of Ecclesiast. cap. xi. ; Usher, p. 127. 

I shall close with two remarkable testimonies against purgatory. 1st, The council of 
Aquisgran, now, Aix la Chapelle, thus decreed : — " Tribusitaque, &c. By three modes 
are the sins of men punished : by two in this life; and one in the life to come." The 
f 1^0 *' are by compunction and repentance; and by God's corrections. "The thirds 
in the other world, is awful and tremendous ; wlien the Judge shall say, "Depart ye 
cursed into everlasting fire, with the devil and his angels." See Aquis. Capit. 
Concil. Ad Pipinium raissa; Lib. 1. cap. 1 ; Usher, p. 129; and Labb. Concil. Tom. 
ix. 844.— Crabb. Concil. Tom. ii. 711. Edgar's Var. p. 466. 

2. At the council of Basil, in the year 14.38, the deputies of the Greek church, gave 
in their solemn dissent from the Latin church's purgatory. "Hup&c. A purgatory 
by fire," said they, "that is temporal, and shall have an end, we have neither recerv- 
<iA from our doctors ; nor do we know that the church of the East receives it." They 
added, — ^-"No small fear doth trouble us, lest, by admitting of a temporary fire, both 
penal and purgaton;, we shall destroy the full consent of the church T* "Hence we 
never have ulh-rmed, nor will we at all ever affirm it." S. Senens. Lib. 6. Bibl. Sanct. 
Annot. 259. Also Martin Crusius, In Turco Gracia, p. 186, Arch. Usher, against 
liofery, p. 182. 

The crafty Latins did, indeed, cajole, and entrap the Greek deputies, to admit, 
" for the sake of peace, and unity," a kind of half purgatory ; namely, without firt. 
But the Greek church did, with indignation, reject this union, and the belief of Ro- 
mish purgatory. And to this day, do all the churches of the East reject it. Usher, 
p. 132. 

Can any thing, therefore, equal the audacious impudence of Bellarmine, who 
fjterraits liimtcif to say,— "that all the ancients, Greek and Latin, from the apostle*' 
days, did eonstantly teach that there was a purgatory." De Purg. Lib. i. cap. 15. 

But it *."■ ])leasant to find virtue enough in some of ^^our own writers, to give this 
Jesuit the lie ! Thrte of them declare that "in the ancient writers, there is almost 
jfo mention of purgator}'-, especially in the Greek writers. And, hence, the Greeks 
believe it not antil ihis day." I refer you to Alph. De Castr. Cont, Hier. in Indulg', 
Lib. 8.— J. llriFens. Luth. Confut. Art. 8— And Poly. Virg. De Invent. Rer. Lib- 8. 
cap. 1. — tij-hcr, p. 124. 

Thus, amid the diversity of the opinions of the Fathers of the primitive ages, we- 
j)erceive in the most certain and distinct manner, that purgatory was utterly unknown 
io them! He ace, as it wants the unanimous consent o[ the Fathers, your priests are- 
bound in honor, to reject and condemn it as, — in fact it is,-— an im})ious, and diabolical 
invention. If they yet sustain it, without the wmaimous consent, tlicn do they lak« 
incredible i);.ins to make us believe that they are knaves, and that they deem all their 
victims to be utterly void of understanding! 

And, my fcllovf citizens, ycu will readily admit that, in view of the whole argu- 



360 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

ment on purgatory, I cannot give you, and the priests a better advice than that ot"' 
g«od old archbishop Usher, " Those of you, wha bUndly foUov/ cardinal Bellarmine, 
may do very well to look a head, lest, while you are seeking for ■purgatory^ you may 
stumble into hell !" 

I have, thu.5 finished my argument on the condemnation of popery, by Reason, 
Scripture, and the Fathers. And I rest the decision with the enhghtened American 
public. 

I am, fellow citizens, yours, &c.. 

New- York, November 5, 1833. W. C. B... 

P. S. It is somewhat "ominous," that the date of this Letter, falling out, in the 
usual course, has happened on the famous day of the celebration of " the discovery af 
the popish gunpowder plot, in Great Britain! May Alm.igbty God preserve our 
republic ; and grant that, as a nation, we may never need to celebrate any such day 
of national deliverance ! Amen. 

W. C. B. 



LETTER XX. 



TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES^ 



*' Sicelides Musse, paullo majora canamus, 
Nou oraries arbusla juvant, humilesque myricse." 



Virgil. 



Reverend Fathers:— It is not unknown unto you, that we and your learned 
priests cf New York, have been discussing the doctrines of your church, until they 
retreated from their defence, and abandoned the cause of "Holy Mother," to the no 
small grief and scandal of the "simple faithful." We ner.t, in continuation of the 
discussion, addiessed ourselves to the members of your flock. " The condemnation 
of Popery by Reason, Scripture, and the Fathers,"— -has been uttered before the 
American public : and no one of your priests has opened his mouth to assign a rea- 
son before the people, vv^hy popery should not be sentenced, in pursuance of the ver- 
dict found and declared. I leave it to the public to pronounce the sentence. Before 
I close, I beg leave to make my appeal to your ears. Reverend Fathers. And, in as 
much as every section of the churches, is on a perfect footing of equality in this glo-.- 
rious, free, and happy lepublic; and in as much as my office is as high, and as 
honorable, in my church, as yours is in your church, — I shall speak as one ^^ ho feels 
himself on a perfect footing of equality ; recognizing j^our superiority only in years, 
and in that exdush)€ly. And I do it under the perfect consciousness that your tenets 
and principles, — and mine, are all open to the inspection of our fellow citizens ; while 
to Almighty God alone, are we all accountable, as the only Lord of the human con- 
science. 

Now, in the first place. Reverend Fathers,-— the call on you is loud and impera- 
tive, for a general Reformation in your church. The religious tenets, and morals, 
patronized and sustained by you, are those of the dreary times of the dark ages. Bet- 
ter men, and men invested with higher offices in your church,, than any of you, 
Fathers, have felt the necessity of a Reformation. Gregory VII. in the eleventh 



^.OMaN CATaOLIC CON'fROVERSY, 26^1 

century, deplored the errors and the vices of tJie Church. In the Lateran Council 
called in 1215, Pope Innocent iii. deplored in a moving mannerr the wretched state 
of Holy Mother. "It is time," said he, "that judgment begin at the house of God. 
For all the corruption which is in the people, chiefly proceeds from the Clergy, since, 
if the priest who is consecrated, sins, he causes the people to sin, facit deiinquere 
populum, &c." Again, — "Perit fides, &c. — faith perishes, rehgion is disfigured^ 
liberty is confounded, justice is trodden under foot, heretics" (v/e know what he means 
hy heretics) "spring up, schismatics gather strength, the wicked rage," See Sac. 
Concil. Labbaei et Coss. Tom. xi. p. 134. Paris Edit. 1671. 

These complaints were repeated in the first Council of Lyons, in 1245, Pope Inno- 
cent IV. stated as his first reason for calling it, — ^" the various excesses of the Clergy J^ 
The same were repeated in the second Council of Lyons, in 1274. Church discipline' 
and ''the licentiousness of the Ckrgy'^ called aloud for reformation. See Delahoguey 
Tract. De Eccles. Append, 2. p, 447. and Dupin Tom. x. 

You all know the fam.ous speech of Dr. Chancellor Gerson, delivered in the Coun- 
cil of Pisa, in 1409, before Pope Alexander, lie thus introduces Holy Mother apos- 
trophising the audience;' — "Ah! wo is me ! Unhappy me! From what a height of 
dignity am I dragged dov/n, by the hands of the wicked ! How is my beautiful com- 
plexion changed, and the splendor of my countenance obscured, &c." This is equal 
to the language of Luther, describing the noted old "Mother of Babylon." And lest 
you may suppose that Dr. Gerson meant this to be the evil doings of the "heretics," 
he goes on to enumerate the cause; namely, the vile archbishops ignorant of, or 
despising their superiors; and simonical clergy, ignorant and vicious. He holds up 
"the warlike," and carnal prelates to execration. "From what roots," he exclaims, 
"can I believe these evils to have sprung? From the ahoviinable pollution of the 
Clergy!" "Those to whom marriage is forbidden, that they may attain to angelical 
purity,** (yes, verily, to angelical purity /)-—"■ 1 behold polluted with immoraUty, and 
uniting impure deeds, with impure words, filling their stomachs with feastirgs, and 
(ikilled in getting drunk ; and snoring over their cups,— these, and a thousand other ills 
have been inspected hy me/" Gers. speech, in Comic. Pis. 1409. See also Mansi 
Collect. Concil. p. 414.Venet. Edit. 1784, and Finch p. 90, 

And not only so, but even the popes were deposed in theCouncil ofPisa as '' schis-^ 
mattes, notorious heretics, entangled in the enormous, and infamous crimes of perjury^ 
and violation of promise." And this is excelled in its manly force and accuracy of 
delineation, only by your histqrian Baronius, when describing the three rival popes 
in ]044. He calls them ''the three headed beast, who fif^id issued out of the gates of 
hell!" Baronii Annul. Tom. xi. A. D. 1044. This festering evil, by the very laws 
of corruption, went on waxing worse and worse. Even yoiir holy Council of Trent 
was avowedly called for this, among other reasons, — " to 'procure a reformation of the 
dergy and the christian people," And the Legates rehearsed the same reasons, and 
avowed that "the evils which oppress the church surpass in number, the sea-sand; 
and cry out even to heaven!" 

I speak of things well known to you all. Reverend Fathers. You do know that 
your standard historians record, how the bishop of Bitonto, in his Oration, on a Sab- 
bath, before the Trent Fathers, said — " Q,uibu3 enim, &c. With what monsters of 
baseness, with what a heap of pollution, with what a pest of iniquity, are the priests 
and the people corrupted in the imly chu? r-li of God !" You know tlj.it F.lar George, 
pf Lisbon, in his Oration, on the first ^abbfithofLcpt, befoj-e these Fathers, dcclart\\. 



^2 S,034AN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

that '* the children .of Holy Mother, had fallen into the hands of robbers, oppressire 
rulers, impious prin.ces, and infidel prelates /" 1 refer you to Labb. etCossart. Concil. 
Tom. xiv. 7.3.3, 734. 

Bnt no reformatioD has been ventured on : no nerve in all your ranks was blessed 
with courage enough, to turn the river in, to cisanse the Augean stable ! And as cor- 
ruption by the fixed laws of nature, always waxes worse and worse, when left to itself^ 
— what, in the name of all that is sacred, must now be the state of things ia Holy 
Mother of Rome ) In our republic, it is true, your church presents the aspect of, in 
some degree, a comparative purity, and correctness. But your priests dare not come 
out to defend and practice your doctrines, as in the Roman caiholic churches abroad. 
For this less offensive state of things, — you, and I should, in justice, say, we also ars 
indebted, exclusively to the potent influence of American ofinions, and American 
morals! 

And. Skcond, you cannot possibly be ignorant, Reverend Fathers, that the deplo- 
rable state of 5 our churches in point of knowledge and morals, is of necessity altoge- 
ther, produced by certain doctrinesj tenets, and rites of your church. I have establish- 
ed the fact by sufficient evidence, and also by the confession wrung from the reluc- 
tant lips of your priests here, that the J^rs? and grand fundamental tenet of the Romish 
thurch involves deism,^as necessarily as^ cause does effect. Youboldl}'-, and unblush- 
ingly deny the holy scriptures to be the only rule of faith and practice.' You sit in 
judgment on the holy Bible, and pretend gravely to give it all the authority it has, 
or can have. You sit in the temple of God ! You do usurp God's throne, by tradi- 
tion, and your church's aiilJiority,. — even as does the deist, by his unenlightened rta- 
3on. Hence the pestilent morals of deism pervade your church throughout ! 

Contrast, I implore you, Fathers, the state of your flocks, and that of all Roman 
catholic lands, in point of knowledge and intelligence ; in point of virtue and sound 
■aaorals, with those of the same class, in society, among those whom priestly iutolft' 
ranee is pleased to call heretics, — thereby meaning good Protestants. Is there a man 
who has eyes, or who can connect three ideas in his mind, who does not perceive the 
astonishing dife^ence between the two classes, — -Roman catholics, and Protestants,*— 
in all lands? Compare Spain with England, Ireland with Scotland, the TJiii^ed 
States with South America? It is not owing to any inferiority, by nature, in the 
Spaniard and the Irishman. These are-^especially the Irishman, a noble minded, 
warm hearted, and generous race of men. They are deteriorated purely, and alone 
bytheparalizmg and infernal influence of popery! And you act on principle, yon 
know. Wlienever a nation becomes an illumined, and moral people, — forthwith is 
the cruel and savage 3'oke of civil, and ghostly tyranny broken off, and dashed on the 
ground. Hence the pope detests knowledge and sound morals, as he detests the loss 
of power and of gold ! 

Now, Reverend Fathers, — ho%v long will you permit wicked men, and profligate 
shepherds to prey on the flocks? How long will 3/ou allow a simple and unlettered 
people to be abused by priests putting such question? as they do, unblushing'lj^ to them 
althe confessional? How long will you allow them to corrupt the 3'Guth, and 
maidens, and married v/omeo, by pouring in tneir ears, ideas which virtue and modesty 
cannot listen to without horror; and which can be breathed by none but sacerdotal 
libertines, and other cognate minions of vice, so far gone in conformity to the image 
af their Father, that they do all his damning service without even a blush ! 

Yesj Fathers, we possess copies of these questions, in Latin, French, and Spanisht 



E0MA5 CATgOLiC CONTROVERSY. 263 

Vfhich these priestly libertines are permitted, by you, to put to young females, and 
married women, in our land, weekly, and daily ! Were I to set them down m 
English before my readers they would be horror stricken ! Yet, the reciting and 
teaching these most obscene questions, in the ears of wives and maidens, forms a 
part of your religion ! The reciting of these corrupting and loafhsome questions 
forms a part of the daily instructions given to Protestant young ladies, in the nunnery- 
seminaries of your church ! 

In the name of the Most Holy One, 1 call on you. Reverend Fathers, to put a stop 
to this pollution ! I implore you to banish the shocking abominations from the con- 
fessional, and from the land! Can it be wondered at that in Europe, monasteries 
and nunneries have been, even to a proverb, denounced as so many Sodoms and 
Gomorrahs ! The most, if not all of you, are foreigners : and you, therefore, have 
had the best opportunities of knowing this to be a fact beyond denial ! You know 
iChat I mean ! I appeal to the Memoirs of Scijno Be Ricci, now before the public ! 

But your very standard books of morality, Reverend Fathers, are full of corrup- 
tion. The order of Jesuits, you know, has been revived especialW for the purpose of 
overrunning this heretical government and republic ! Regiinents of these papal sub- 
jects and household troops are pouring in upon us ! And their standard works of Jesuit- 
ism — so often condemned in Europe, are put into the youth's hands in the popish 
seminaries here. Now hear a specimen of these books used in the Jesuii .schools. 

I have referred to them, once and again. But as these moral writers are the order 
of the day, with you ; and as they are the manuals for Protestant young men and 
young females, whom cruel parents abandon to the fangs of Jesuits, I shall quote a 
few, again. 

"A child who serves his father, may uecretly steal as much as his father would 
have given a stranger for his compensation! Escobar, Theol. Moral, vol. iv. lib. 
34. p. 348, Precious instruction for our sons ! Hear again, — " Sen/anls may 
secretly steal from their masters as much as they judge their labor is worth, mor® 
than the wages which they receive." Cardenas, Cbr. Theolog. Diss. 23, p. 474. To 
this agrees Tabern as; and also Lud. MoHna, Tom. ii. p. 1150. This b.st writer 
says, "De bonis, &c. They may secretly abstract something of their master's goods, 
providing they have asked, and been refused: and provided they, can do it without 
injury to themselves, and their shame," &c. Hear the instructions to a thief, "x4l man. 
is not bound to restore what he has stolen in small sums, however large may be th« 
total." Tamburinus Explic. Decal. Lib. 8. p. 205. Next, hear what a good wife 
binder a Jesuit confessor's hands, may do, — *' A woman may take the property of ber 
husband, to supply her spiritual v/ants; and to act like other wornen.^' That is, to pay 
her priest for putting to her these infamous questions at the confossioKal! See Gor- 
donus, Tlieol. Moral. Univ. Lib. 5. \). 826. But I beg leave to refer my reader to a 
world of similar quotations in Secrcta Moniia of the Jesuits, Appendix, Princeton 
Edit. And to Paschal's Provincial Letters, vi. viii. ix. 

Now, I put it to your consciences. Reverend Fathers, whether such doctrines, and 
the licentious questions put at the confeseional, and the easy rates of absolution, and 
pardon of sin granted to those who confess, and pay the church's dues, have not pro- 
duced the present ai)palling state of morals in the Romish church. And v.^ith all thin 
impiety, deism, and immorality, in your communion, in popish lands, are you grave, 
or in jeat, when you actually affirm that there is no salvation out of your Roinan 
catholic church? As it is really impossible that you can be in eamest, I toll yow 



■264 ROMAX CATHOLIC COPTTROTERSY. 

gravely, Reverend Fathers, that you do carry your jests too far, when you persuad« 
your simple victims that all Protestants are damned ! ! 

But. THIRD, — Vv e have already demonotrated that your succession from St. Peter, 
and the true church, is utterly cut off: I beg to refer to my Letter VIII., &c. : that 
you have lost the succession of the ministry, which became utterly aud finally cut off 
at the Council of Trent, when the church of God came out of "Holy Mother," and 
left her "as a cage of unclean birds;" that you have lost the jjiire doctrines of the gos- 
pel, and the holy ordinances of Christ : that you have substituted a sacrifice and an 
offering of, as you say, human flesh and blood, called the ?na^s, instead of the Holy 
Supper; and a human device of anointing with chrism, instead of the baptism of the 
Lord : and have, moreover, added five rites, — such as marriage, holy orders, extreme 
auction, &c. ; which you have very facetiously honored with the title of sacraments. 

Now, ReveTend Fathers, the most serious doubts are entertained by good men, 
whether your church of Rome be not, in verity, a perpetuated branch of paganism f 
■Conscious that such grave inquiries are very congenial to your grave habits, I shall 
soon resume this theme. 

I am, Reverend Fathers, j^ours, &c. 

Not. 19, 1833. W. C. Brow>'Lee. 



LETTER XXL 



to the lord archbishop, AyO THE lords bishops of the ROMA::^ CATHOLie 
CHURCH, ly THE U?"ITED STATES. 

The Romish church a perpetuated branch of ancient vaganisvi. 
" Hail, holy Pantheon ! house of all our gods !" 

Reverend Fathers — I introduced a very grave subject in my last; such as is, 
in all respects, ver}- befitting your Reverence's devoutest investigation. May I beg 
A'ou. to follow me in the serious inquiry ? 

It is certain that neither 3'ou, nor we, can find your church in the holy Bible. 
Hence you have been compelled by complicated, and mortal errors, to reject the holy 
scriptures, as the rule of faith: and betake yourselves to traditions, to keep yourselves 
in countenance with your interminable load of ceremonies and rites ! Pardon me, I 
err. We do find her in the Bible; but on the wrong side of the holy pale of Christ's 
true and pure church. We find her in Revelations, ch. xvii. ; and in 2 Thess. ch. ii. 
But, if we cannot find you as a true church in the pages of Lhe Bible, we can find 
your whole system in the field of paganism ; cnl}- under a nevr nomenclature. It i» 
baptized paganism. 

Let us approach one of the pagan temples, then. Fathers, one of your cathedrals. 
What a harmony I "\^^2at a consistency! ^Vh£t a fair sisterhood! WTien we enter 
a pagan chapel, the first thing we find was " holy water, and a priest sprinkling it." 
"The Amula," says Montfaucon, "was a vase of holy v>^ater, placed by the heathens 
at the door of their temples, to sprinkle themselves with." This is exactly what you 
have ordered to be placed in your chapels I The true church, follovv-ing the com- 
mands of Christ, has no such thing. 

The next thing which strikes us as we enter a pagan temple, is the cloud of smoke 



ROMA>^ CATHOLIC CO^'TROVEPvST. 



265 



from the burning of incense. This is exactly the same in your chapels! In the 
heathen temple, you could see, in their large apartments, a number of altars, all 
blazing, while the curling volume of smoke ascends in a cloud ; so it is exactly in 
your cathedrals ! A number of altars are reared, and are smoking with incense. 
In the heathen temples, the images stood in rows, all around, as in the Pantheon : or, 
as in other temples, the conspicuous image of the idol, the genius of the place, stood 
alone. So it is exactly in your temples! The Pantheon of Rome, in olden times, 
the house of all the gods, is now the temple of Mary^ the mother of God, and all the 
faints.' The whole form, and the idolatry, are the same to the very letter; only 
new names are given to the idols. The Mother of God, has the place of Jup-iter, 
•'the father of the gods." Of old, every pagan could find his own god, here, and 
v/orship him : even ao, now, every one of the simple faithful, from ail countries, can 
find his own patron saint, and worship him, in the temple dedicated by pope Boniface 
to St. Mary, and all the saints ! ! 

In the pagan temples, the images and paintings were black with smoke. Even se 
are the idols in your old temples. When Dr. Middieton saw the " holy image" of 
our Lady in the temple of Loretto, he Vv'as amazed to find her as black as the image 
of ancient mother Proserpine, or, of an old negress ! 

In the heathen chapels, lamps and torches v/ere kept continually burning before the 
faces of the idols, and at the altars ; and near the dead. This vs'as so peculiarly apart 
of the heathen religion, that the primitive christians opposed, and ridiculed it. " They 
light up candles to God,"— -says Lactantius, — " as if he lived in the dark : and do not 
they deserve to pass for madmen, who ofier lamps to the Author and Giver of light? 
In this, your church copies tho pagan model exactly! Each altar, and each image 
has its lamp, and candle ! And wliat an array of wax candles you light up to the 
dead, to illumine their path through the dark valley ! But it must be their naisfortune, 
not your fault, that these magnificent wax candles do not move, and travel through 
the valley of death, with them ! 

Let us, in imagination, pass farther into the interior of the heathen temples. We 
behold their votaries on their knees, before their Jupiter, or Mars, or Venus, beating 
their breasts, and performing their holy evolutions. Enter a Homish cathedral, and 
you behold the same. Near an altar, a priest kneels, and goes through his canonical 
gestures, and contortions, and evohuions I At another, or near the favorite idol, an- 
other kneels, or some humble votary, praying, — "O holy Mother, by the rights of a 
mother, command thy Son to hear us !" While the priest repeats this in tlie canonical 
Latin, "O fclix puerpera, nostra plans scelera, jure matris, impcra Rcdemptori!" 

There is another shocking piece of conformity, too striking to pass unnoticed. TJie 
pagans offered up human beings, — human Jiesh, — htman blood, on their altar! Now, 
Reverend Fathers, if \vc are to beheve your solemn word, and that of your priests, 
the wafer and the wine arc, in transubstantiation, turned really into Christ'' s very body, 
bones, nerves, muscles ; and the ivine into his real blood, which Jloived in his veins! 
This is either most certainly so, or, you utter an imposing falsehood before the world. 
Unless you utter falsehood, then, you do offer up daily, and weekly, hinnan Jlesh, and 
human blood, in sacrifices of the mass! That is, if you utter truth, 3'ou yourselves, 
do a« really offer up human sacrifices, as ever did, or do the heathen ! And you njake 
your victims of imposition eat this hitman Jlesh, and drink this human blood! In the 
name of humanity, and of common sense, Reverend Fathers, will 3'ou persist in such 
literal conformity to paganism, as to perpetuate human sacrifices! Will jou persi« 

24 



266 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 

in making the simple faithful cannibals, as were, and still are the heathens ! Speali^ 
the American public demands an answer. 

In evxry heathen temple, the priest, in his outre vestments, was attended by a little 
bjy, in a white, fantastic dress, wiih a little box, or chest in his hands. This contained 
the incense for the akar. This was too pretty a part of the show, to be omitted by 
your church. Hence every one has seen a little boy, clothed in a surplice, — yes, a 
surplice,\ike a young Astyanax, strutting near his father Hector. The youth bears, 
with solemn grimace, the sacred utensils, and the incense pot; which the priest, with 
a number of ludicrous grimaces, and gestures, swings around the altar, exactly as 
the pagan priests, in every respect, did. See Middieton's Letter from Rome, p. 
1.36, &c. 

How ingeniously, and industriously 3'ou have copied, and even exhausted the 
pagan ritual! I have discovered another prominent feature of your pagan model. 
It is well known that the priest has a little box, called the Pix. In this is kept hi« 
ivafer god ; into this he puts what of the wafer god is left, after communion. This 
lie carries about with him, to be always ready, " to prepare a sinner for dying," and 
give him a bran god passport to heaven, by laying it on his tongue ! Now, I was 
pretty confident that this .was borrowed : for the Roman priests are by no means 
geniuses, or remarkable for their own inventions! I discovered, lately, the origin of 
this, in Mr. Hope's Collection of statues, and antiquities. There is in that collection 
aa Eg3'-ptian Pastophora holding the god Horus. And in a London publication of 
Januar}', 1833, we have a description of it. "A Pastophorawas an initiated woman, 
who, in the religious processions of the Egyptians, carried the god Horus, in a box 
before the people, and presented the idol to the adoration of the multitude.^' Here we 
have, at once, the origin of the Pix, with the god in it; and of the carrying it about ; 
and abo the elevation of the host, to the adoration of the admiring Roman catholic 
mobs ! It is purely pagan ! 

My learned author adds, that "the language of Clemens of Alexandiia, one of the 
Greek fathers who lived in Egypt, who mentions the females called Pastophora, 
(Pacd. 3. 2.) with respect to the lifting up of the covering of the box, and the direc- 
tions of the Roman canon of the Missal, are curiously similar. The " discooptrit 
calictm,'' of the Mass Book, would seem to be almost a literal translation of Clemens' 

Greek sentence, whith is, as follows : " O.Xr/ov f::avacTt\.\ai rov KaTa-srtTaTf.taTOS c»g 6si^Dv Tiv 

Qcov." That is, — " Having drawn the veil aside, a little, as exhibiting the god." See 
Prot. Journ. of Lond. Jan. 1833. p. 44. 

The processions of the heathen through the streets, carrying their idols, dressed 
out in flaunting display, with the votaries bearing wax caudles, or flambeaux in their 
hands, have been faithfull}^ I should say, slavishly co})ied, in all Roman catholic 
countries. To see one of the processions on Lady day, and the overgrown ruddy 
faced priests waddling along, in all their motly dresses, like so many well fed buffoons, 
with grave men, and even magistrates, and even delicate ladies, with long wax can- 
dles, at noon day, in their hands, — does actually remind one of the days of pagan 
Rome, and the ceremonies of demon worship throughout all pagan lands! 

The ancient temple of Romulus was sacred to that Roman hero god. Here infants 
were presented by the ancients to be cured of diseases by this god, " who was gracious 
to children." Itis remarkable that this temple at Rome, is now dedicated, says Mid- 
dleton, to the christian hero god, or saint Theodorus, who had been exposed when aa 
infant, like Romulus, and who hke him, cures their diseases. When the Doctor 



ROMAN CATHOLIC COKTROVERSY. 



267 



visited this church, he actually saw a dozen of well dressed females, holding their 
sickly infants hefore the christian Romulus, — saint Theodorus! ! Here we actually 
have a wicked superstition perpetuated from the founding of Romulus' temple, to this 
day, by the Holy Head of the Holy Mother Church ! 

Even the cruel superstition and lacerations of the priests of Bellona, and the vota- 
ries of Isis are kept up, under the pious care of 3'our Holy Father! In their proces- 
is used to lash, and cut their bare backs. The only music they used 
their lashes, and the suppressed groan of the victims, atoning their 
^heir own tortures ! Your sect of the Flagellantes, or the Whippers 
.1 to the letter. Besides, at the season of Lent, in Romish countries, 
.hejleshbj disciplinarians, march into the chapel: at the tinkling of 
are extinguished, their backs laid bare, and their whips are ap])lied 
036, by the modern votaries of Bellona. Nothing is heard, in the 
canonical hour sacredly devoted io self lorture, but the cracking of 
hip! It is not to be understood, however, I believe, that the blows 
eir backs. The wise ones know, that they can make as much noise 
3t the flesh ae well mortified, by applying the whip to the benches! 
;' beneficial, and might contribute speedily to bring to their senses, 
ippers" and " holy disciplinarians of the unruly flesh," ifhislloli'- 
'ct the edict of the judicious and wily old emperor Commodus, 
which "compelled these Bellonarii to lash and cut themselves in good earnest ; and not 
feign it merely, and impose on the people."" This point of holy discipline, I beg to 
refer to you. Reverend Fathers. And bishop England can carry the projected model 
of improvements to Rome, when he returns to his Holiness to complete his schemes, 
©n our country's subjugation ! 

Even the water idolatry of the pagans has been kept upby j-our church, where she 
has flourished gloriously. The ancients, and also the modern pagans — you know, 
held certain rivers holy. And to wash in them, was equal to the purifying fire of 
your lately invented purgatory : and to be drowned in them, did forthwith oj^cn up a 
pathway to immortal glory !. Now, who has not heard of St. Patrick's Purgatory, 
an island in Lochderg, in Donegall county, Ireland? "To this lake and island im- 
mense multitudes are sent, annually, by the Romish priests there, to wash away 
their sins, precisely in the same manner, as is done in the Ganges, and in India ! Sec 
a similar description to this, in the Glasgow Protestant, ch. 54. 

You have left few important parts in the pagan rites uncopled; and especially 
have they met your pious and devout imitation, whefi they could be rendered useful 
lo the gain of the priestly craft. The ancients used the sprinkling of holy water not 
only on men, but on beasts. They sprinkled their horses, as Middletoix has shown, 
in the Circensian games. From this is borrowed the Roman annual festival in 
January, at Rome. All who v/ish "good luck" to their horses, asses, and mules, 
bring tlicm up to the door of the convent of St. Anthony, near St. Mary's the Great- 
There stands a holy priest clothed in his sacred sur))lice, armed with hie consecrated 
brush, and his tub of holy water, waiting with a soleni grimace, the approach of ITis 
brother cattle. As tlu^y come up, he souses them with his salt brine ; and in return 
for his " Benediction of the cattle,^^ receives for each a sum, projiortioned lo the 
'/.eal or ability of the devotee. This, says Dr. Middleton, " ])rocures a revenue sufR- 
cicnt to keep no less than fifty idle, lazy, fat monks, for a whole year!" Letter from 
Rome, p. 14L 



265 ROMAi^ CATHOLIC CO.XTROVEKS?^ 

Thus I have traced ihe origin of yourprcminent rites, ceremonies, and customs. I 
ought to have added that the pope bears the very title, and office of the great officer 
of the pagan rehgion, in Rome pagan, namely, ?ontifex Maximus, the cJcirftsi 
•pontif. This, true history declares to be his genuine founder,— and by no means the 
humble, and holy St. Peter, who would absolutely have been shocked into a fit of 
holy zeal against the impious sycophants, had he been hailed Pontifex Maximus, or 
our lord god the pope Peter. It is well for you, Reverend Fathers, and his " holiness 
of Rome," that the choleric apostle is not alive, nor among you. For, if he were, be 
vv'ould let you feel the "temporal sword" about your ears; as manfully and sharply 
as he exercised it in "cutting off the ears" of, by far, your betters, in olden times! 

Thus, I have shown, I trust, to the American commnnity, that, at the rise of what» 
Rev. Fathers, 3'ou affect to call the Roman catholic hierarchy, — conversion had become 
a very different thing from what it was in the days of the holy apostles of our Lord- 
In their days it was a devout and holy "turning from idols, to serve the living God."' 
But in the early popes' days, it was a conversion from Christianity to the service of an 
innumerable rabble of saint-gods ! The Romish chrisiiGns so called, to use the words 
of McGavin: "instead of converting heathen to the fRith, ictre, by ihe ivjluence of the 
latter, turned from the faith, and converted to heathenism !''' "In point of fact," adds 
he truly, "idolatry is as palpable at Rome, at this day, as it was in the days of Nero !" 

I am. Rev. Fathers, }-ours, &c. 

" W. C. B. 



LETTER XXIL 



TO TITE LORD ARCHBISnOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF TEE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Picture of ihe Mass. 
Mummerv worthv of laushter, and'of tears! 



Amphilochlus. 



Reverend Fathers : — In my last, I traced the origin of your chief tenets, from 
paganism. The least degree of acquaintance, with your system, and with the reli- 
gion of Greece and Rome, will satisfy any man of the correctness of my positions. 

I propose as a kind of appendix to this inquiry, to give a picture of a High Mass, in 
Pontifcalihus ; and our readers will be the better enabled to judge whether the show 
be christianlike, or pagan, in its every feature: or, rather, whether it does notactually 
out-pagan every species of paganism ! 

" Spectatum admissi, risuni teneatis, amici ?" 

The Mass includes almost the whole of the Roman catholic worship. Its inventors 
have lavished their genius in the device of the most singular antic gestures ; and an 
endless routine of ceremonies ! Hence going to Mass includes nearly all a Roman 
catholic's religion, and piety. It is the grand test of discipleship ; and,^ the evidence 
of wearing " The mark of the beast in the face, and in the hands !" 

Now, were we to view the Mass as a comparatively innocent innovation, a mere 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 2(39' 

idle ceremony, a show to gratify overgrown boys and girls, we should not here notice 
it. But it is that which you. Reverend Fathers, have substituted for the one only and 
perfect atonement of Christ/ It is a damning innovation, in as much as it is the 
substitute of our jB/e5sec^ i^eJeemer's perfect righteousness.' It takes the entire place 
oi the one and only blessed Savior. And it excludes "his finished work of satisfac- 
tion on the cross," as completely as does the Koran of Mohammed exclude our 
Lord from the mosque I And our proof ef this strong assertion is this : — The Mass as. 
you solemnly profess it to be, is, " the offering up of a sacrifice of human flesh and 
human blood, for the sins of the quick, and the dead to pacify God?" 

And this substitute of our Redeemer's atonement is not only an anti-christian idola- 
try, and superstition, as we have in former Letters shown: — it is a curious show, at 
which grave christians cannot but smile. And thus it exhibits " a mummery worthy 
of laughter, and of tears !" 

The Mass, as viewed by a spectator, seems to consist of five divisions. The frst 
we may call the robing of the bishop in his pontificals, — which must afford a highly 
intellectual, and:a purely spiritual feast of soul, to the spectators, — worshippers, shall 
I call them ? 

The bishop enters the chapel in a woolen pontifical cope, which has its tail borne up.. 
by a chaplain: and going to the altar, he kneels down and says the "introibo, — I 
will go in, &c." He then walks to the place where the Paramenia (or robes and 
ornaments) are laid, and seats himself; surrounded by the proper quota of chaplains 
and deacons; one of whom acts as his prompter, to tell him what to sa}'- : and to 
point, with-his finger, to the place in the book where he is to read. Near them, lie 
the various, solemn paraphernalia, and sacred vessels. 

The attendants having duly put on their sanctified copes and surplices, the bishop 
rises, and taming towards the altar, says the Lord's prayer secretly. Then crossing 
himself from his brow to his breast, he says, '^ God be my helper, &c." And whil 
the choir responds, he turns towards the altar, between two bearers of wax candles,., 
and says, " the Lord be with you, &c., and other prayers. Then gravely laying 
aside his pZwyJaZ, or cope, he takes the ornament called hh planet, approaches the altar, 
and sits down, while the psalm of the hours is being sung. During the ringing, the 
holy sandals are brought out : one deacon lifts up the corner of his cope, while another 
takes off the holy man's shoes : then uttering certain pra^^ers, he at last saj^s, " Shoe 
mo with the sandals of gladness!" And the dutiful deacon then puts on the conse-. 
crated sandals. And so he answers this fervent prayer ! 

Then standing up, he says, " O Lord, strip the old man oft' me !" The scutiferus, 
or shield bearer, answers this prayer, by stripping him of his flowing cope. Then 
looking on his hands, he says, " O Lord, give virtue to my hands!" This grace is an- 
swered by another deacon bringing a basin and water to wash his hands, while he sits. 
The towel and basin are held by the most honorable and exalted layman, who throws, 
himself on his knees, and pouring out a little water into the basin, he sips and tastes 
it. Meantime another of the ghostly menials is taking oft" the holy consecrated rings 
from the bishop's fingers ; and then the distinguished layman, rendered in mortal by 
this honor allowed him, with the aid of a deacon, washes the saintly bish(i])'s hands, 
dries them, and carries back the basin and towel to the crodcntia. 

Thus the bishop's feet being shod luith the gospel preparation, by the pious act q[ 
putting on sandals ; and the old man being put off, by devoutly pulling off his old 
woolen cope ; and having washed his hands in virtue and innocence, by getting the»k 

^4* 



270 ROMAN C^THOmC COPfTROrERST. 

washed tn tvntcr^—^he approaches the robes, and prays: '* O Lord, put on me the 
helmet of salvation, &c." At this signal, the paramcKta, or robes and ornaments are 
all brought forward, with aanctiraonious bowing and grimace, — fifteen in number.- 
The bishop approaches, bows, and kisses five of them, — namely, the amictus, the 
pi.:toral, and the cross, the stole, and the pall. All these the deacons receive frone 
the chaplains, one by one, and put upon the bishop. 

And, first, with edifying solemnit3% they take the Amictus^ and having all kissed it, 
they put it over the bishop's head, and fix it on him. His head being thus armed 
with the shield of salvation, he stands up and prays: "O Lord, clothe me in white,- 
&c." Upon this they put on the white surplice. Then he utters another prayer, while 
all the people look on him with w=onderful piety and edification, saying, " O Lord, 
gird me with the girdle of faith, &c. On this, in answer to his devout prayer, the 
ghostly menials lake his girdle, and place it round his holy corporation, and buckle it 
in front. Then addressing the cross, the bishop thus prays, — "Deign, O Lord, to 
fortify me, &c." On this the deacon, in the due exercise of his sacred functions, takes 
the cross, and holding it usp to the bishop to be kissed, hangs it round his neck, so as to 
make it rest on his holy breast. 

Nest, the bishop in following up his devotions, says to the stole, " O Lord, give me 
the robe of immi3rtality, &c." The deacon, whose office it is to answer this prayer^ 
now puts on the robe, nicely adjusting it, as any mantua maker's maid would do, on 
Lis sacred person. Next, the saintly man prays, — as he looks on the tunicella, or little- 
coat,- — "Put me in th« coat of jocundity, and clothe me, O Lord, with the garment 
of joy, — tunica jucunditatis, &c." Here they put it on him, fitting it with mantua- 
maker like exactness, to his holy neck, and holy hands. He next prays, — " O Lord» 
ek>the me with the garment of salvation, &c." Here they put on him thedalmatick, 
©r episcopal vestment, with tasteful niceness. The holy man next fixes his devout 
eyes on the gloves, and prays. — " Circumda mauus, Domine," &c. Clothe my 
hands, O Lord, with the purity of the new man," &c. On this, the deacon, whose 
©ffice it is to answer all these devout prayers, first kisses his right hand, and puts a 
glove on it, then kisses the left, and puts a glove on that; and so he clothes his hands 
with heavenly purity ! 

This being over, the bishop prays another new prayer, saying, " O Lord, thy yoke 
is easy," &c. On this, the spiritual menials who are illuminating the congregation 
by all this sublime play, take the bishop's ornament called "-the planet,''^ and put it 
©n, bringing it back, so as to give his arms free exercise. The pall is next brought ; 
the deacon takes hold of it by the cross on the right side : and the sub-deacon by the 
cross on the left side, and hold forth the cross in the middle, that the bishop may kiss 
it : tnen, while he mumbles a prayer or two, they put it round his neck, making part 
of it on the left shoulder to lie double : and the whole is so tastefully, and so lailor- 
like put round his neck, that his arms are not hindered. 

Then comes the putting on of the three thorns with their jewels. This, none but 
tke sanctified and initiated can well describe; the ^rs^ thorn goes into the breast of 
the pall: ihe second into the cross on his left shoulder : and the third vnio the cross 
behind. And these thorns, by the orthodox dressing, must not go quite through the 
cross ! It is a matter of deep concern to be orthodox here ! 

After this, the bishop, speaking lo the mitre, sslvs in way of prayer — -"Mitram, 
Domine, &c. Put on me, O Lord, the mitre, and the helmet of salvation," &e. 
Here he sits do v/n : and the dutiful and busy deacon devoutly puts the mitre on the 



ROMAN CATnOLlC CONTROVKKST.- 271 

bishop'e head; the sub-deacon as devoutly holding up the glaring baubles, and rib- 
bons thai hang from it. The bishop sitting, prays, *' Decora cordis, &c. Decorate 
vrith virtue, O Lord, the fingers of my heart, and body," &c. Here the deacons, in 
•oQsummating his devout prayer, put the rin^s on his firtgers. Next, the gremial, a 
rich piece of silk held by two priests, between the bishop, and the people, when he 
says the maas, is laid on his lap. This done, he prays to the manipuhim, or the cloth 
which is on the left arm, at mass — saying,— "Merear, &c. May I be worthy,- 1 pray^ 
O Lord, to carry the manipuhim, with a mournful spirit," &c. Upon this, the said, 
cloth is put across his arm. 

At this stage of the sanctimonious manoeuvre, the incense is prepare-J in the proper 
vessel, with about one dozen gesticulations, and contortions. Then with a nicely ar- 
ranged procession, the bishop comes to the steps of the altar, and makes a full halt». 
Here the deacon takes off his mitre, and religiously combs back, and smoothes down 
his hair. Then follows the confession of each of this holy confraternity. The bishop 
bowing reverentially to the altar, begins the confession of his sins. The deacon kiss- 
ing the bishop's left hand, goes up to the altar, with the manipuhim, and the gospel 
©pen in his right hand. The bishop next, with suitable prayers, goes up to the altar, 
and kisses it with deep solemnity, and also the book of the gospels. Having next ap- 
proached the horn of the epistle, he takes the incense pot, puts incense into it, and 
causes the cloud of smoke to cover the altar. And this religious, and very edifying 
service is done thus :— -having adored, with profouud reverence, the image on the cross, 
he whirls the pot of incense three times round it : then he whirls the pot tivice round 
the image, and sacred relics, on the right : and then around those on the left, as often. 
Next he gives three holy swingings of the pot, round the image and relics, near th& 
c</rner of the epistle : and as many he gives to the horn of the gospel. He then delivers- 
the pot to the deacon, who swings it round the bishop himself, and smokes him 
effectually i 

After a number of other edifying gestures, and motions, the bishop is lifted up by 
the arms, as if he were suddenly become paralytic ; and being on his legs, he as sud- 
denly gets well. And standing sturdily on his legs, he says the *' Gloria Deo, Glory 
to God,^' &c., taking care, in the most orthodox manner, to join his handson his breast^ 
at the word, God. While the choir sings a hymn, he has his mitre and gremial brought 
to him : they arc again taken off him, as the hymn ends. He is again helped on his 
legs by the activity of the sturdy deacons ; and he cries out to the people,— " Pa.r- 
vohiB, Peace he unto you ;" and he keeps his hands before his breast, until the edified 
and devout audience reply, ^^ And with thy spirit.''^ He then says, "Let us pray," 
and then he goes on with his prayer in Latin, to console and edify those who do not 
understand a single word of the mummery ! 

After an incredible number of similar gestures, the burning of incense, and kiss- 
ing of the bishop's hands, and bowing, and reading what they call the gospel, and 
after the bishop has been again perfumed with incense smoke, and has stood up without 
mitre and gremial, — he sits down to listen to a sermon. The preacher, nov/, comes 
up, and on his knees adores the bishop, kisses his hand, and asks liis blessing. This 
he freely gives by making the sign of the cross over him. That finished, with much 
gesture and bowing, the preacher gives the bishop his absolution, &c., &:c. 

Second: The bishop or priest sings five psalms : then uncovers, combs down his 
hair, and washes his hands. Next comes the sprinkling of lioly water,: and singing 
the introitus, as the bishop approaches tho altar. After a great many gestures, again 



272 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTEOVERST. 

airoitly performed, there is much chaunting. A Unen cloth full of pictures is carried 
as a canopy over the bishop, by four sturdy ecclesiastics. Here again follow incense, 
and chaundng. There is the gradual, and the hallelujah : and the tractus, — so called 
from the long, drawling tone, and nasal twanging of the priests affecting much sorrow, 
as they sing it. 

The third partis the consecration, more properly so called. The gestures, and par- 
ticularly the bowings, and adoration here are not easily recounted. The sub-deacon 
puts on a long veil ; lakes the fatin with two choice hosts, or wafers, and the chalice ;, 
and covering them, with the veil, goes up with them to the altar, following the bishop. 
Another brings the wine and water. The bishop now puts on his episcopal ring and 
mitre, and comes to the altar. At the altar, his mitre is taken off; and he adores with 
lowly bowing to the altar. The deacon now takes one of the hosts, and touching th& 
patin and chalice with it, inside and outside, makes the sub-deacon taste of it. The 
other host he offers to the bishop, who takes it with both hands, and holding it up 
before his breast, repeats the prayer, " O Lord accept it," &c. This is called the 
Offertory, from its being offered to God; and from the people's making, an offering of 
gifts to the priests. 

The priest before lie offers the host washes his hands a second time. In the interim, 
the deacon throws over the altar a clean linen cloth called corporale, or palla, because 
they say, it covers Christ's body. The chalice is also covered with another palla, or 
eorporak. The deacon having presented the patina, with the host upon it, to the 
bishop, also presents the chalice, in which the piiest mixes wine, and water, and con- 
secrates it. In the consecration, the water only is blessed by the priest when mixed, 
not the wine, becausQ the wine they say> represents Christ, who needs no blessing... 
The host is placed on the altar, between the chalice and the priest, to intimate that 
Christ is mediator between God, (who, they say, is represented by the priest,) and the 
people, which the water in the chalice, as they say, represents. The priest again, 
perfumes the altar and sacrifice, three times in the manner of across; bows himself, 
and kisses the altar, and repeats very softly the prayer which they call secreta ; though 
this prayer is said in silence, yet the conclusion of it is uttered with a loud voice Ptr 
omnia secula seciilorum. Then follows what they call prcefatio, which begins with 
thanksgiving, and ends with the confession of God's majesty. The minds of the people 
are prepared with these words. Lift up your hearts. The answer to which is. We 
lift them up unto the Lord. Then is sung the hymn. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, 
&c. Heaven and earth is full of thy glory. Then follows the hymn Hosanna, and 
next the canon, v/hich is also called Actio, (because it is a giving of thanks) which 
is; uttered with a loud voice. The canon, besides thanksgiving, consists of various 
prayers for the pope, cardinals, bishops, kings, all orthodox christians, gentiles, Jews, 
&G. These, also, are particularly remembered for whom the sacrifice is to be offered, 
and their names rehearsed. Prayer is also made for those that are present at mass; 
and for the bishop himself. Then mention is made of the Virgin, the apostles, evan- 
gelists, and martyrs. Next, after many crossings, follows the solemnity of the conse- 
cration of the host, by the pronouncing aloud these words, ^^ Hoc est corpus meum:''' 
This is my body ; to which the people answer. Amen. The priest now falls down on 
bis knees before the consecrated host, and worships it, offers prayers to it, and, rising 
«p, he elevates it, that it may be adored by the people. Then after seven several 
cr©«sings o[ihehost, and chalice, this part of the mass is concluded with prayers for th® 



ROMAN CATHOLIC C0:»7TR0VERST. 273 

dead, and the people's offerings of money to the priest, as a reward for his prayers in 
behah"" of their dead friends, for their delivery out of purgatory. 

The fourth part of the mass begins with the pater noster, and some other prayers. 
The sub-deacon delivers the patina covered to the deacon, who uncovers it, and de- 
livers it to the priest, and kisses his right hand. The priest kisses the patina, breaks 
the ^osf over the chalice, and puts a piece of it in the wine, to show that Christ's 
body was not without blood. Then the bishop pronounceth a solemn benediction. 
Next is sung the hymn Agne Dei, that is, O Lamb of God, that fakest away the sin 
of the world. Then the kiss of peace is given, according, as they allege, to the- 
apostle's commands, Salute one a^iother with an holy kiss. 

The fifth, and last part of the mass, contains their comviunion. The priest, or 
bishop communicates first himself. He takes the one half of the host for himself, 
the other half he divides into two parts, the one for the deacon, the other for the sub- 
deacon. Next, the clergy, and monks communicate; and after them, the people ; 
but they have only the consecrated wafer allowed them, and put in their mouths, the 
cup being withheld from them, and drunk by the priests, or clergy alone. The priest 
holds the chalice with both hands, and drinks three times, pretendingthereby to signify 
the Trinity ! The whole is concluded with what they call post-communion, v.hicb 
consists in thanksgiving, and singing of antiphonies. The priest then kisses the altar,. 
and removes again to the right side of it, where having uttered some prayers for the 
people, and blessed them, the deacon wuth a loud voice, cries. "J^e, missa e£f," that is^ 
''Go in peace, the host is sent to God the Father, to pacify his anger." See Steph. 
Durant de Rit. Ecclesia?. Innocent III. de Myst,.Missre. Bernard.de Oiific. et Gabriel. 
Biel. de Canone Missae. See also Dr. M. Geddes' Works on Popery, vol. iv. p. 
206, &c. 

Such, christian reader, is a faint outline of the chief parts of the wass. To coej,- 
prehend the imposing puerility, you must see it. I repeat nothing of what we said of 
its idolatry, and outrageous insult offered, by it, to the one holy, and all perfect atone- 
ment of our blessed Redeemer ! I now speak of it as a splendid compound of impo- 
sition and quackery, and childish inventions, played off, upon an ignorant, gaping 
assembly, by large, and bearded youths; each of whom, as a sophomore, is taught to 
strut his boyish parts on the ecclesiastical stage of the consecrated, theatre ; and to go 
through his ghostly pantomiriie, without laughing outright! And who are each of 
them nearly ready, as hopeful, bearded boys, to be transferred to the yrmjor department, 
to study the first elements of logic, and common sense ; and con over the primary 
parts of the gospel theolog}'! 

I appeal, from you, Reverend Fathers, to the enlightened, and highly intelligent 
American community. And I beg them to decide whether the mass be not wholly 
the invention of Romish priestcraft, throwing completely into the shade, all the idol- 
atry, superstition, and ghostly manipulation ever known, or ever heard of, in Greek 
and Roman paganism! 

I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &.c. 
W, C, B, 



274 ROMAN' CATHOLIC CO.N TROVERS F. 



LETTER XXIII. 

TO TRZ LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE F.OMAW CATHOLie 
CHURCH, IN THE UMTED STATES. 

On tilt Idolatry and Superstition of Popery. 

'• Confounded be all they that serve graven images; that boast themselves of idols: '.vor- 
ship Him, all ye gods!" Ps. xc. 7. 

Revere.vd Fathers : — In tracing, by the light of scripture and history, the true 
©ligin of your church, its doctrines, and rites; and in demonstrating irs pagan pater- 
nity, it would be unpardonable to omit the most striking and irresistable demonstra- 
tion of this, set glaringly before all eyes, in its idolatry and superstition- 
There is a six-fold idolatry which I charge upon you. Fathers, and your church of 
Rome. And, before God, and the enlightened American community, I offer to make 
good this charge. First, your worshipping oi images. Second, your worshipping of 
saints. Third, your worshipping of relics. Fourth, your worshipping of the cross, — 
the wood of the cross. Fifth, your worshipping of the host, or the consecrated wafer. 
Sixth, your worshipping of the sacrament, under the name of St. Sacrament. Your 
Reverences will, of course, patiently hear me on each of these, in order. 

By idolatry is meant the ascribing of divine honor of latreia, to idols and other 
objects, and the worshipping of God by images. If there be meaning in words, this 
is condemned and prohibited by the law Ox God. " Thou shalt not make unto thee 
any graven image,"-— that is, as all admit, for religious uses and worship. *' Thou 
shalt not bow down thyself to them," — that is, in adoration offered to them, or before 
them." And, Reverend Fathers, the reason is obvious, why your Trentine council 
crowded this precept out ; and why others of your writers cram it into a corner, not, 
if possible, to be visible, or to stand out openly, as a eommandment. Hence the third 
commandment is your second one. I beg leave to quote other passages of God's law : 
'' Cursed be he that maketh a carved image ; or molten image, which is an abomi- 
nation to the Lord, — and setteth it up in a secret corner; and all the people shall say 
amea!" Deut. xxvii. 15. This doctrine pervades the whole of the Old Testament. 
And even your own Apocrypha utters the following words on your ears: *' Cursed 
i« the idol that is made with hands, yea, both it, and he that made it." Wisdom, ch. 
xiii. and xiv. Iri the conclusion, the author of this portion of your "sacred canon," 
says that the honoring of abominable images "is tlie cause, the beginning, and the 
end of all evil ; and that the worshippers of them are either mad, or most wicked." 
And you cannot be ignorant, Fathers, that this same '^canonical book" of your church 
says, — '* The painting of the picture, and the carved image with diverse colors 
enticeth the ignorant, so that he honoreth and loveth the picture of a dead image, 
that -hath no soul." Now, it is quite manifest that this sensible wTiter must have 
looked often into a pagan temple; — if not, in a shrewd vision, into a Popish chapel, 
and seen the paintings, and statues of the worshipped saints ; and flaring, paity 
colored robes of the "adored bishops and priests!" He adds the following bold and 
Thundering denunciation: read it. Fathers, and let all your flocks read it. They that 
love such evil things, they that trust in them, they that make them, they that favor 
them, they that honor them, — " Shall feel a judgment worthy of God,'" — even, — tx-» 
treme damnation upon them.'" — Wisdom,, ch. xii. 26, 27; and xv. 4, ^. 



ROMAK CATKGLIC CGNTnOVERST. 27or 

In a word, it is the one grandj pure, and siniple doctrine of the Bible, that we 
*' Should worship the Lord our God ; and serve him alone.''' And the second grand 
item is this, — Thou shalt not make, nor lise paintings, and images, to worship God 
by them. " Take good heed, for ye saw no manner of simihtude on the day that the 
Lord spake unto you in Horeb; — " hst ye corrupt yourselves, and make unto you a 
graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male, or female P* Deut. 
iv. 15, 16. 

Reverend Fathers, is it possible that you can be ignorant of these passages of God's 
holy word ? Can bishops possibly be so ignorant, as not to know that Almighty God 
has uttered this against the pagans, and against you, their too faithful descendants ? 

Some of your more sober writers really have tried to defend your system o^ idolatry > 
"We do not worship figures, these painted saints, these statues: we v/orship God, 
through them." 

How deeply yon are dyed in paganism ! This v/as exactly what the heathen said, 
— "We do not worship these statues, but our gods through them." "But I beg two 
replies to this your defence: Ist. In addressing a saint through his statue, it is 
supremely absurd to say that you worship God through that statue. You pray ; not 
to God, hut to a dead man, or a dead woman! In praying to, and adoring a dead 
man, you are as guilty of idola<;ry, as in praying to a stump of wood, carved into a 
Madonna! But, 2d. God has prohibited in the most positive terms, the use of image?, 
in his pure and spiritual worship. He has not only said : " Me 07ily shalt thou wor- 
ship; and have no other God before me:" but he has also uttered the most solemn 
command " notto'make any graven image; nor to bow down to it, or before" it, in his 
worship, 

Ag-ain, the champions of your renovated paganism say "We are not idolaters; we 
distinguish between latreia, and douleia : the first, and highest worship, we render to 
God only : the latter, or the lower, we may, and do apply to the creature." To this 
we reply, that these two words are used reciprocally, both by sacred and classic 
writers. The Hebrew word, to serve God, is rendered sometimes by latreia, and 
sometimes by doultia, by the Seventy. See Exod. iv. 23, and xxiii. 25. In these 
texts they use latreia to express the holiest service of God. In Deut. xiii. 4, and 
many other places, they use the word douleia to express the same divine service. 
And, Rev. Fathers, if you will look into Laurent. Valla's Armot. in ch. iv. of Mat- 
thew, you will perceive that he proves beyond gaiasayiug, that these two words have 
no difference in their meaning, and application to divine worship, This also i» 
admitted by your own Nich. Sarrar. in Litan. 2, Quest. 27. And by Mouline de 
Novit. Pap. L. vii. cap. 13. I have only to add here that St. Augustine is considered 
the one who first coin<^ this distinction, where no difierence exists. But like your- 
niAva, — Fathers, and your priests, he was no Greek scholar, as he himself frankly 
cawfesses in these words; "Ego, quid Gra^cas lingua) perparum assecutus sum, ef jyropc 
nihil.'* Aug. Cont. Petit. Lib. ii. caj). 28. Cent. Fauyt. Lib. xx. cap. 2L And this 
is not all ; that good Father never intended the distinction now used in the popit^h 
6©nse. He actually confesses that both the terms belong only to God : "The one, — 
says he — "is due to him, as our Lord ; the other to him, as our GckI." And you are 
well aware that St. Paul, in describing his own character and oihce, calls himstdf, 
tbulos, a servant of Christ. And surely, he did not thereby give Christ the inferior 
worship. 

Farther, to establish our pohu beyond the gainsaying of every Romaju writer, let me 



276 ROMAN CATHOLIC CO.XTROVERSY. 

only say that when the devil tempted our Lord, it was not the higher order of worship, 
the latreia, that he demanded ; nor did he himself pretend to be God ; he would have 
been content with "a little religious worship, a little prostration;" just exactly such 
as you exhibit in bowing down to idols. And yet Christ says to him,' — " Get thee 
behind me, Satan: for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him 
only shalt thou serve." You need not, — you cannot reply to this, by alledging that 
it was the devil that demanded the ivorship : but that you profess to demand worship 
to sainVs images. To this I reply, by reminding j^ou of St. Paul's words in 1 Cor. 
X. 19. 20, that what "the gentiles sacrificed to their idols, they sacrificed to devils.'''' 
Your idols. Rev. Fathers, are just as much devils, as are the idols of the Gentiles. 
And if Christ refused the " lower worship," as you call it, lo the devil; then- is every 
christian bound to refuse your "lov/er worship," to your nev/ly baptized ^^ devils. '^^ 
I crave pardon, He v. Fathers, if I have not spoken in plain enough and sober terms, 
to 3'ou. 

The more grave of your writers now admit, that it is a vile species of idolatry to 
make Images of God the Father, and of the Holy Spirit. And well may they do so. 
For it is impossible to represent in visible materials, the invisible God. Every image 
of this nature, does represent the Deity infinitely different from what he is. Hence 
these images are designa4;ed by divine inspiration, " a lie." For they utter the most 
glaring, and most pernicious FALSEHOOD, that can possibly be conceived. Rom. i. 25. 
"They changed the truth of God," the true representation of the infinite and omni- 
present one, " into a lie, and worshipped, and served the creature, more than the 
Creator." 

But you insist on making, and adoring images of Christ : and you carry this into 
practice to such an extent, that these images, and those of the Madonna and the child, 
are as numerous in your chapels as the Jupiters, and Venus, with her Cupids, were 
in tire pagan temples of old. Now, any image you can make of Christ, must exhibit 
an imaginary countenance, and features; no man, or church on earth, has retained 
his true likeness. As portraits, or statues of him, therefore, what you show off", are 
actually mere fictions; mere impositions; and they are, like all idols, a lie. Besides, 
no christian in his sound senses ever did, or ever will worship the manhood of Jesus 
Christ. We worship him exclusively, and only, as " i/ie eternal Son of God,'' ot 
'■'the Great God our Savior.'" And in this character, in which we do worship him, 
no image, no painting, no similitude, ever can be made of him. A few rude materials 
of straw and dust, can never represent the invisible, eternal, and omnipresent Deity! 
To worship an image of a man, whichyouare pleased, without reason, or propriety, 
to style a " Christ," is the grossest idolatry ! And according to the above argument, 
it is doubly "a lie!''' First, as to his manhood: and second, as to his Godhead! 
Hence our answer to your vulgar reason, in behalf of using images, — namely, that 
they are "picture books," — " the instructive books," to lead and guide the illiterate 
and vulgar into truth : — " and that they exhibit, at one view, what it would take vol- 
umes to express." Yes ! they are the illiterate man's picture books : but they mis- 
lead, and impose on him most scandalously. They are the infamous tools of a 
reckless pagan priestcraft, to crush intellect, reason, knowledge, piety, and if possible, 
the pure christian religion! Yes! — "They are the books of the unlearned." And 
be it so : — but whoever saw a man in his senses, fall down, and worship, and pray 
to "-his books,"" out of which he was reading! 

I beg leave to extend my remarks also to the images of your saints, — namely. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 277 

dead men ^ and dead women! Do you pretend to worship their dead bodies, or their 
living souls? Not their bones, and dust surely ! If so, avow it openly. But how 
can you pretend to make an image of a soul, now in heaven ! Do you believe that 
these rude, material images represent the invisible soul ? No ! Then, surely, they 
resemble not the body of the deceased: for you have lost the true likeness of St. 
Peter, and St. Paul, and ten thousand others of your adored saints. And I am sure 
you will all admit that these images represent not the human soul. Here, then in 
both cases your images are an utter " lie !" And, of course, they convey to the minds 
of your illiterate, and degraded victims, the very falsest impressions which can, even 
by Satan, be conveyed to mortals! 

\ Image worship, and image use, in chapels are, therefore, not only without authority 
from God's law, but absolutely against the very spirit, and letter of it. 

The man's intellect must be only a single, visible point above rationality, who can 
persuade himself (a thing which none of you, Fathers, nor any rational man, in the 
ranks of the priesthood, ever for a moment believed,) that St. Peter, or the Virgin, 
can be every ivhere present, to hear their million of votaries! How can the saints, I 
pray you, hear a million of different supplicant?, in all parts of the world, at the 
same moment ? If they cannot ; and if they need to he told by God that such a one 
is, that moment, 'praying to them^ then they cannot, withoiu God, do any thing for 
them! Nay, even if God told tbem, they could not listen, or attend to a million at 
once ! And I put it to you, if, in that case, it be not infinitely more proper, to refer 
all the intercession to our Lord Jesus, whose infinite merits can certainly admit of no 
addition, and of no human, or angelic help : and to go directly to God, who 
only can hear, and will hear ; and can help, and ivill help, those who come unto 
him through Christ, Why seek helpless aid, when we have omnipotent aid, at 
hand! 

An instructive anecdote is recorded in the history of the ancient house of Gordon. 
A faithful, old tenant had got into difficulties ; and could not pay his rent. He went, 
first, to the under, and then to the chief factor. They spoke roughly to him, and 
would make, or accept of no compromise: the loss of his cattle, and the failure of the 
crops, were nothing to them. They demanded the full rent, under the pain of being- 
imprisoned, and all his goods sold, and his family turned out of doors. In his cala- 
mity, he resolved, in despair, to make his way to tiic Chief. He pressed into the very 
presence of the Duke, and implored his pity, and interposition. His grace no sooner 
heard him, than he kindly offered him all the relief he solicited. As he showed him, 
on his departure, the paintings, and statues in the chapel of the castle, honest John 
Gordon asked his Chief "what was the use of these gaudy figures?" Now the Chief 
was a papist ; and he reproved John's ignorance very heartily; and chid him for not 
knowing that these "were St. Peter, and St. Paul, and the Holy Virgin." "And 
what can ye possibly do wi' them a'?" cried the plain Scottish Protestant. "Why, 
John, I pray to them to intercede for me with Christ, and his Father!" "Ah ! gudc, 
my Lord, ye're a' wrong. Saving your presence, it is vtter vanity, and worse ! Trust 
to no saint, ray Lord, but go directly to God himself, our Savior. I luive tried it just 
now: these small fry bring no aid : in my own case, — ye see it. I fiyst tried little 
Sandy Gordon; and I tried mciklc Sandy Gordon, but a' would lui' do: but wlien I 
came to your own good Lordship, I got the whole desire of my heart ! 1 beg you, my 
Lord, to go and do likewise." And the honest man's well timed, common sense in- 
struction was effectually blessed. Tlie family record says that his Lordship was 

25 



278 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

awakened, and finally by God's grace converted, and he was the first of that distin- 
guished long line of that noble Protestant family of Scotland. 

The subject of images, you know, Fathers, has, in your fierce agitations, absolutely 
deranged the unity of Holy Mother church. You cannot be ignorant that the sen- 
timents of your sect, are of the most opposite, and discordant nature. 

There are three conflicting opinions in your church; and I beg leave of you to ask, 
to which of the three factions, in your Unity, you and your priests belong? Or, are 
you as much distracted on this point of idolatry, in these States, as is your broken, 
and distracted sect in Europe ? 

Bellarmine, and Juenin, you know, divide the popish sj'stem on this topic, into the 
following three classes. The frst class use images, but do not worship them. That 
is, they allow the Komish superstition, but reject the idolatry of it. According ta 
these, the image has neither sanctity, nor power; they worship the holy One only 
before the presence of the image. " They honor the images only as the Jew did the 
Ark, or the christian, his Bible." This marvellously refined superstition character- 
ized the system of popery, as held out before Protestants. It was professed by Bossuet, 
Juenin, Gerson, Dupin, Challoner. But as Edgar observes, " they were prudent in 
publishing their opinions at a due, and respectful distance from Spain, Portugal, Goa, 
and the Inquisition." See Bellarmine on this, Lib. ii. 20., Juenin, Instit. vol. iv. p. 
414. Bassanus, Edit. 1773. And Edgar^s Var. p. 402. 

The second faction, in your church, patronize both the idolatry and superstition of 
Romanism. They offer the Zoifjer worship, — the douleia, to the images and paint- 
ings. This faction is numerous. It boasts of Bellarmine, Baronius, Sanderus, Estius, 
Godeau, and Spondanus. This, sa3^s Bellarmine, was the doctrine of the Nicean council. 
They held that "images are holy, and communicate holiness?"/ They also enacted the 
curse on those who used pictures only, to assist their memoryrand not for adoration! 
Bell. Lib. ii. 20. 21. &c. And Labbeus vol. viii. 700. The council of Trent, which met 
after the Reformation, professed to follow the Nicean fathers. But, such were the force 
of light, and the influence of literature and philosophy, shining on them from heretics, 
that the Trentine fathers have been constrained to present a less pagan, and a more 
rational view of the :ubject, than that of the Greek council. By the Trent canons, 
the " worship of the holy images," is made to dwindle into ^'honor and veneration.^^ 
Dupin ii. 636. Lab. ii. Tom. xx. p. 171. 

The third faction in your church, carry out their theory into the grossest idolatry of 
paganism. They give the same worship to the images and paintings which they 
give to the originals ; that is, they give the same solemn adoration to the images of 
God, and his Son, as that rendered to Almighty God, and to Christ himself. To the 
image of Lady Mary, they give hyperdouUan, or intermediate worship; while that of 
the saint receives inferior, but still truly divirie homage* This is the system of Aqui- 
nas, Cajetan, Bonaventura, Carthusian, Turrecrema, and the Schoolmen. See Bell. 
Lib. ii. 20. Aquin. iii. 25. Edgar, p. 403. 

Pope Adrian, and the Nicean council, pretend to find proof of this very gross idol- 
atry, in the existence of the cherubim over the mercy seat; and in the brazen serpent. 
Is it not vamazing. Fathers, that the infallible pope, and these Greek fathers did not 
happen to discover that these were neither the images of saints, nor the objects of 
worship ? The cherubim were in the Most Holy place, and never were seen by thi 
people. And it surely did not require very profound knowledge of the Bible to disco- 
ver, that, when the brazen image was made an object of worship by some besotted 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY, 279 

Jews, it was forthwith dashed into fragments, by one who '* acted rightly in the sight 
of God." 2 Kings, xviii. 4. 

I am. Rev. Fathers, yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



LETTER XXIV. 



TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 

On the Idolatry and Superstition of Popery. 



" With crucifixes hung, 

And spells, and rosaries, and wooden saints. 
Like one of reason reft, he journeyed forth, 
In show" 

Reverend Fathers: — With your permission, I shall present to the American 
community, some specimens of the peculiar and gross idolatry of the Romish church. 
And, through you, I beg my readers to be assured that lam giving specimens of idola- 
try, — not of tiie dark ages, — but of such as has been perpetuated from antiquity down 
to our time ; — of idolatry practised in our land, in our cities, and in our own days, as 
you, Rev. Fathers, very well know. And you can assure them past all doubt, on 
their inquirie--? made of you, that all I speak on this matter, is the simple unvar- 
nished truth : that it is all exhibited in yourbooks; sustained by \'Our ghostly power, 
and practised at your bidding, by the supple priests, and minions of antichrist. I 
have spoken of your idolatry in the use and worship of images, in my last. I pro- 
ceed to exhibit your idolatry in the worship of^ saints. I select promiscuously. 

Thomas a Becket is an illustrious saint in your calendar, to whom you pay your 
worship. So great was his saintship's influence in heaven, for about 400 years, that 
your *' simple faithful" said actually more prayers, and offered more gifts to him, than 
even to Jesus Christ ! I beg to repeat what I formerly had occasion to quote from 
bishop Burnet, that "in one year, there was offered on Christ's altar, in his church at 
Canterbury, about £3; on the Virgin's altar, about £63; and on Becket's altar, 
upwards of £832 ! Next year, the amount of prayers and donations stood thus: — 
On Christ's altar, — nothing ! on the Virgin's £4, and a few coppers : on Thomas a 
Becket's, upwards of £954! ! Now, here is a specimen of the prayers which your 
victims offer up to this knave, who justly fell for the crime of high treason against 
his lawful sovereign ; but whom you make an inferior g-ot/. "May this communion, 
O Lord, cleanse us from sin, and by the intercession of blessed Thomas a Becket 
thy martyr, make us effectual partakers of this heavenly remedy." Rom. Cath. 
Missal for the use of the Laity, p. 8,5. Again: Tu per Thomie sanguinem, <fcc. Do 
thou by the blood of St. Thomas, ivhich he spent for us, — quern pro 7iohis impcndit, 
grant that we may ascend whither he has ascended.'* 

In Scotland, in A. D. L551, it was taught as salutary doctrine, by the po])ish priests 
and prelates, that the Lord's prayer be uttered in devotion to the saints. Sec Fox, p. 
1274. Willet, p. 384. To this day you utter Pater nosters to them ! 

Your homage to saints is admirably arranged. Lucian in his Dialogues of the 
heathen gods, iatroduces the god Mercury as complaining to Jupiter, with a ruefu^ 



250 ROMAN CATHOLIC CO>-TROVERST, 

countenance, that he had too many offices, and too much work assigned to him : that, 
as a god, he was killed outright with work and toil I Now, you have been more 
judicious than the ancients: you select a potent host of saint-gods ; and hence 
none of them, except the holy Virgin, has got too much work. St. Dennis lakes care 
of France: St. James, of Spain; St. George, of England : St. Andrew, of the Scot- 
tish men; St. Patrick, of the Irish; St. David, of the Welch: St. Nicholas, or Santa 
Claus, besides taking care of the sea, watches over all good Dutchmen; and is, more- 
over, the patron of all young females, who wish to be married I St. Anthony, the 
Abbot, presides over Ji re and inflammations ; hence in these, and in fires, you implore 
him, "O St. Anthony, graciously defend us from fire I" St. Anthony of Padua, 
again, preserves his votaries from water, — "■ O holy Anthony, keep us from drowning 1" 
St. Barbara takes charge of the faithful in time of thwider, and utiT, — " O holy Bar- 
bara, pray for us : and keep us from thunder and war I"' St. Blass cures all disorders 
of the throat: and to this saint you hare recourse when hoarse, or laboring under 
colds :• — " O holy St. Blass, pray for us, and cure our throats I" St. Lucia takes care 
of the eyes: and all those who want to have good eves, or diseased ones cured, must 
pray to her: " 3Ierciful and kind St. Lucia, prav for me and cure my eyes I" St. 
Agatha cures sore breasts. St. 3Iargaret presides over midwives. St. Ramon, — 
nobody can tell who he is, — but on the ghostly calendar, he is declared to watch over 
married ladies vrho are in that state in which all good ladies wish to be, who love their 
husbands. St. Lazaro is his kind assistant ; for he takes them ofi' St. Ramon's hands, 
at the moment when their labors begin. St. Polonia has the care of the human teeth : 
and all who have the tooth ache, or who want good teeth, devoutly adore St. Polonia ! 
St. Domingo cures /ei*crs^: St. Roque wards oSthe plague .' See Tovrnsend's Travels 
in Spain, vol. iii. p, 215; Cramp, p. 35.9. 

This is a very small specimen; but you have saints to preside over all diseases? 
and over all cattle. There is a saint solemnly stationed, you know, over the geese and 
'poultry : and others over less important matters and animals : all ai"e kindlv provided 
f3r ! 

In some instances, our Lord is represented in your prav^rs, as mediator tcith the 
sai7its, to obtain from them what their votaries ask. For instance, under the name 
of St. Wenefride, \'ou have this prayer drawn up for your victims: " O blessed St. 
Wenefride, hear the prayers and receive the humble supplications of thy devout pil- 
grims, and obtain, by thy pious intercession, that God will be pleased to grant us a 
full pardon and remission of sins ; that we may increase and persevere in God's grace, 
and enjoy eternal life with him in heaven. This ire leg of thee. O llessed Virgin, 
end martyr, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.'' Here she is put in the place of God, 
the Father; and she is implores! to grant the favor /or Christ, the Intercessor's sake ! 
This is copied from a book published by the papists in Britain, in A. D. leflT. See 
Glasg. Prot. vol. i. chap. 47. 

The following is the praver used at tJie consecration of images, by pope Urban '\ III. 
taken from the Roman Rituale. " Grant, O God, that whosoever, before this image, 
siiall diligently and humbly, on his knees, worship and honor ihy Son, or the\irgin, 
or the saint," (as the image may be,) '* he may obtain, by his, or her, or their merits 
and intercession, grace in this life, and eternal glory in the next I"' Now, we ask in 
the words of an eminent writer, — ■' if this be not idolatry of the grossest nature, let the 
church of Rome show us wherein the worship of Jupiter and Apollo was idolatry." 

One ^Tord more in reference to the common band of all the saints; — each of them. 



KOWAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 281 

individually, is invoked as a god : and the Almighty is implored for the sake of their 
merits, to grant all blessings. Here is a specimen of the whole, or All-Saints, taken 
from " the Roman Missal, for the use of the laity,'' London edit. 1813. " Oramus te, 
&c. We beseech thee, O Lord, by the merits of thy saints, whose relics are here •, 
and of all of the saints, that thou wouldst vouchsafe to forgive us all our sins. 
Amen." 

The Holy Virgin is your great goddess and queen of heaven! The foUowiug is 
from " the Hours of the Blessed Virgin,'' Paris edit. 1553 ; and it is remarkable only 
for this, that pope Sixtus IV. has solemnly granted as you well know, 11000 years 
pardon of sins to all who devoutly say it before her image! — "Ave Maria, hail most 
holy Mary, mother of God, queen of heaven, gate of paradise, mistress of the world," 
&c. Again, from the Roman Breviary, Sep. 8, Lee. 6. "Perte, &c. By thee w^e 
hope for the pardon of our sins : and in thee, O most blessed Lady, is the expectation 
of our rewards." The following I copy from " The dtvotion of the sacred heart of 
Christ, with the dtvotion of the sacred heart of Mary." ]2ili London edit. 1821. 
This book is surpassed in authority, w^ith you, only by the Missal.— For Friday, — 
*'I revere you, O holy Virgin Mary, the holy ark of the covenant; and with all the 
good thoughts of all good men, on earth, and all the blessed saints in glory, ,o bless 
^nd praise you injimtely ; for ihat you are the great mediatrix between (! and man, 
obtaining for sinners, all they can ask, and demand of the blessed Trinity! 

Millions of such prayers arise daily from the baptized paganism, which you are 
pleased to call your church. And yet, after all, these are not the most offensive, or 
blasphemous. I appeal to the pages of one of your saints, which I have repeatedly 
quoted; and beg leave, again, to quote, in order to sustain this heavy charge. I allude 
to St. Bonaventure, whom you worship on the 14th of July, — a day sacred to his 
service. — "Jure matris, &c. By the rights of a mother, order thy beloved Son', our 
Lord, &c. impera filio tuo, &c." Cor. Beat. V. Tom. 6. Roman Edit. 1588. 
Again, — " Ora patrem, jube natum, — "O felix puerpera, &c. Pray to the Father, 
command thy Son." " O happy Mother of God, atoning forour crimes, by the rights 
of a mother, order thy Son, the Redeemer, — nostra plans scelera, jure matris impera 
Redernptori ! !" I have thus given the original, that all may judge of the translation 
I give. See Hist. Sec. Char. August. De Com. B. Virg. And to crown the climax 
of the most shocking and revolting idolatry, compared to which, that of Greece and 
old Rome was tame and moral, — for they never placed their Venus, or Diana, or any 
female deity, above their Jupiter, — your Sciini Bonaventure has written "ilie Pt^aher 
of the Lady Mary," in which he lias adapted the psalms to the worship of Mary; by 
inserting instead of J.ord and God, the ntTme of Mary, and our Lady! Here is a 
specimen , — " In thee, O Lady, do 1 |)Ut my trust; let me riever be confounded." Ps. 
Ixviii. opens thus: — "Let our Lady arise, let her enemies be scattered." Psalm xcv. 
thus opens, — " O come, and let us sing unto our Lady : and ujake a joyful noise unto 
the Queen of our salvation!" One instaure more ; the llOth Psalm op(uis thus, — 
"The Lord said unto my Lady, sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine ene^' 
mies thy footstool !"— And yet. Fathers, you giaveh/ coll yourselves christians ! Nay, 
you affect to be the only yure, apostolic church! *' O judgment, thou hast fled to 
brutish beasts; and men have lost their reason !" 

But, even all this idolatry, horrible as it does appear, is not the worsl ! You 
pay adoration to the relics of the saiius. You venerate old bones, old chains, ohl 
^armoQi^, aa:l the coals which burned cerlaiu saints! Yes! to use the words of 

^•?^ . 



283 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY., 

bishop Hall, Works, folio, p. 630, who quotes the idea out of Erasmus, you have 
amozig youj worshipped relics, " St. Francis' cowl; St. Anna's comb ; St. Thomas' 
shoes; St. Joseph's breeches; and a piece of the Virgin Mary's green petticoat!" 
These you devoutly venerate ! Verily "to be grave defies all length of face!" You 
religiously venerat-c, in certain of your churches, in Europe, to this day, says bishop 
Hall, St. Martin's boots: St. George's scabbard: St. Crispin's paring knife; f.he 
parings of St. Anthony's toe nails ; and the tail of the ass which carried our Lord ! 
In France they have ybwr heads of St. John; and in Rome, says Dr. M'Culloch, 
Jiue pilgrims arrived with a budget of relics, for the faithful: among which each of 
them had afoot of the ass, which carried our Lord into Jerusalem! Popery Con- 
demned, vol. i. 

But the cross, even the wood of the cross, is in great request among you. No chapel 
is thorouglily consecrated, unless it have a bit of the holy timber. 

Now, I particularly beg your attention to two things relative to this affair. 1. You 
adore the ivooden cross itself 2. You render it not the inferior, but the svperior ado- 
ration ; that is, latria ; which is precisely the same as that which, you admit, dees 
belong to Almighty God- This doctrine is sustained by the highest authority of your 
church. St. Thomas Aquinas says, — "If we speak of the very cross, on which 
Christ was crucified, it is to be ivorshipped imth divine worship, &c. " We both speak 
to the cross, and pray to it, as if it were Christ crucifed on it.'''' P. 3. Q.u. £5. 
Art. 4, 

" TAe Roman Pontifical, revised and published at Rome,'''' in 1595, by order of pope 
Clement VIII" ,, contains "the order for the processional reception of the Emperor." 
Here are the words I allude to; — " Crux legati, &c. The cross of the legate, because 
latria is due to it, shall be on the right hand; and the sword of the Emperor on his 
left." Folio copy, p. 672. Finch, p. 289. 

The following are the prayers offered up to the ivooden cross: — "O crux, &c. O 
cross, only hope ! hail ! In this glory of thy triumph, give an increase of grace to 
the pious ; and blot out the crimes of the guilty."' "Exalt, of the cross, Sept. 14." 
Again, on the feast of St. Andrew, Nov. 30. you teach your deluded victims thus to 
pray, — " O bona crux, &c. O good cross, who hast obtained comeliness and beauty 
from the Lord's limbs, receive me from men, and restore me to my Master." And 
this adoration of the cross may be seen in our cities, on Saturday in P-assion week. 
The priest uncovering the cross, says, "Ecce lignum, &c. Behold the wood of the 
cross!" Then the chorus sing out, " Come let us adore!" And all fall down and 
adore the wooden cross ! In another part of the ceremony, he proceeds to the middle 
of the altar, and uncovers the cross totally, as he cries aloud, — " Ecce lignum, &c. 
behold the ivood of the cross, on which the salvation of the world hangs! Come let v.s 
adore /" Then bearing the cross to another place, he kneels, and places it there. 
Then putting off his shoes from off his feet, he approaches "to adore the cross," — 
kneeling three times before he kisses it ! Then after him, come the other clergy, and 
laity, two by two, who kneel thrice, and adore the cro&s, — adorani crucem."^ See 
Rom. Missal. Dubl. Edit. 1795. " The Roman Missal, for the use of the laity," 
has omitted the closing part of this idolatrous ceremony, — because it is a translation, 
in English; and is given to the Protestant public. Finch, p. 291. 

The worship of the consecrated ivafer has been repeatedly noticed, as a prominent 
part of your idolatry. You convert it, by the muttering of ''hoc est corpus,''^ into 
ihe Host; that is the hostia^ or victim to be offered up in sacrifice for the quick, and 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 283 

the dead. This idolatry, while it is as palpable, and as brutish as that which was 
the reproach of the ancient Egyptians, is decidedly the most degrading in all the his- 
tory of human infamy. The ignorant Egyptian would never degrade himself so low 
as to eat his idol calf; or his onion god : he could never be so far brutalized, as to 
become a cannibal; and eat a sacrifice of human flesh! But, you, Rev. Fathers, 
and your victims, less fastidious, make your bran god ; then adore him ; and, then, 
tat him up! You convert the bran god into human flesh, and human blood; and 
then, like cannibals, ^'ou eat this human flesh, and drink this human blood ! 

Then, only think of the prayer which you offer up to this wafer god, before you 
despatch him into the stomachs of the faithful, and, thence, " into the draught." Here 
it is ; — '■'■ O saving Host ! thou that openest heaven's door, — the arms of our enemies 
enclose us; we need thy help: O speedily help us, we humbly implore thee!" See 
"Manual of godly prayers, and the hymn of Aquinas in it." And Glasg. Prot. 
chap. 60. 

In fine, bein^ infuriate with the spirit of idolatry, you do actually convert the 
sacrament into a god.' Yes, Fathers, you actually worship and adore it, under the 
name of St. Sacrament! "The manual of godly prayers," contains the litany of 
this new Roman catholic deity. A few extracts from it will close this Letter. And 
I request my reader to remember that these prayers are addressed, not to Christ, not 
to God, but to St. Sacrament; as is evident from the words of a little book published 
in French, in 1669, entitled, "Practice to adore the holy Sacrament," which begins 
rthus, — " Praised and adored be the most holy Sacrament of the altar !" Here is a 
part of th-e. litany ;^-" Bread corn of the elect, have mercy on us! Wine budding 
from virgins, have mercy on us ! Fat bread, and the delight of kings, have meic}" 
■on us! Supersubstantial bread, have mercy onus! Word made flesh dwelling 
iy us, have mer^cy on us !" 

To understand this last phrase, we have only t-o remember that they had swallow- 
ed the wafer ; and that wafer, being the body and blood, so^/l and divinity of Christ, 
was in their stomachs, at the moment of uttering this extraordinary prayer ! 

" Sacrifice, of all others most holy, have mercy on us! Dreadful, and life-giving 
sacrament, have mercy on us! Unbloody sacrifice, have mercy on us !'^ 

Such are a few specimens of your unparalleled idolatry and superstition ; as they 
are believed and practised by you, this day, in our .cities ; and over the land. Yes! 
such is the idolatry and superstition of your learned priests; and ^'highly polished, 
gifted, and accomplished bishops,'^ whom one of the ■editorial corps, the other day, 
called " the oriiament of letters, and the glory of our land I" I rest my appeal^ with 
the enlightened American community, if the idolatry and superstition of your soi- 
disant christian church, do not utterly eclipse, and completely throw into the shade, 
the foulest idolatry and superstitioji, of the most pagan lauds, in their most pagan 
.condition j 

I am, Reverend Fathers, yours, &c. 

w. a. B, 



2S4 R01L\5 CATHOLIC CO.VTROVERST. 



LETTER XXV. 



XO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP. A^D THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE R0MA:< CATHOLIC 
CHURCH, ly THE UyiTED STATES. 

On tht inic-r/icl syrn-ptonis ofctrtain d^cay. cndf.rial rvin. in Popery. 

"• Babvlon the ereatis fallen. — ^b fallen I Her sins have reached unto heaven; and God 
hiire-c:-brr=f h = r in! u:ties :" Eer. sviii. ^. 5. 

E.EVEREVD Fathers : — Having done some jasiice, to your doctrine of ihe 7ncs!, 
and pu'satory : and having, as you will generously admit, made a fair exhihiiicn of 
ihr ti::'::^ a:: - itition of your church, it may be proper now to mice the 
ij~:\^:: 5 .-" Ucay in your novel cmd sectarian system. Every heresy nas its 

weai - - Every apostacy from pure Christianity, and yom 

ch-r: . - : : ^ .r:oli even to the le'.ter. — has in it the jarricg and 

dr:!. T rj.r:^:^ ~ : .: T : K ._ ; :Z r. nas so ordained it. As sin 

nee r ;?:::. . r .^ !. i^ l„c i^^i^aji 1-:,^:.-/, cven - : .-:r :s ^hat monal element in 
ever} i ^- -; -- -. necessarih^ by the lawsof ir-zi: i!r is ice- worketh its death 
and exrinciioa. In ttie natural ^*"orld, the ki: i i : ^ i Dt! y sends an anti- 
dote to kill the viper's poison, where vipers ai .:_ t : ze the vegetable 
«nd mineral poisons, where these exist. Even so i: :^ _ r - orld. No 
error, no heresy, do apostacy has ever 3 e: appearei. vri.i. u: - _ ^ viement ctf 
truth set forth ; or some fatal internal disease to work its gradual destruction ! And. 
just in proportion to the greatne»s of the evil system, so is the remedial element found 
to be potent and i/re^istibie. The king of Zion is very wise, and bonndle^ in mercy. 
Henee he has ordained, in mercy to a bleeding and agonized world, that when a 
eyBtem- such as popery, or Mohammedanism is the mortal enemy of the human race, 
in civil and religions things, — there shall be not only self remedial elements, but even 
a suicid.:d principle embodied in it, by its impious fabricators. 

Now this, if I mistake not, is pre-eminently the case with popery- And you can 
correct me. Fathers, if in aught I err on this point. There are elements wrought up 
into your whole system, which are absolutely smeidal : and will, as naturally and 
necessarUy-, work the death of the whole system, as God's laws, in nature, produce 
their own proper efiects. And it is a comfort to reflect that this process in the moral 
w^orld, and in religious systems, is just as certain in its effects, as in the natmal world. 
For instance, the systems of the Brahmins, and other paeans, which are founded and 
sustained by darkness and ignorance of the sciences. n:_st tall to the ground when 
eFer its victims are illamined in the arts and scien : ? ? i.e christian world. That 
religious system which has, for a part of its solem: a belief that the earth is a 

Tast plain, and not a globe; and that it rests on tne 1 re land turtle, must 

fall 19 ruins before the science of astronomy and ^e _ Li ven so as certainly 

must popery fall by its own jarring elements, and ri r i t : its own c-ormption. 

First J — ^Yom syst^n lays no foundation for savi:.^ ri.i:i;. T^ follows a? a le^ti- 
mate inference from what we have established in our preceding letters. T ; :ne > jject 
of divine worship, yon add angels, saints, reUcs, and the wood of the c — vaich 
you render latria, or the higher worship. In the mass you have an en . -_;dtu- 
tion of priestcraft, for &e one. cniy, and perfect atonenient : in the doctrine of justifi- 



ROxMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVEnST. 285 

cation before God, j^our church has thrown away the righteousness of Christ, and 
has substituted good works, as the only meritorious cause of our personal acceptance. 
Justification by our own merits was established in the sixth session of the council of 
Trent. And your standard writers universally teach the damning error. Moreover, 
one needs only to open the Roman Missal, in order to see that jou offer up prayers to 
the saints, that God, ''through their merits" would deliver you from all sin. I open 
the book at random, — my eyes have just met this prayer of yours to St. Nicholas, — 
" O God, grant, that by his merits and intercession we may be delivered from eternal 
flames." Rom. Mis. for the use of the Laity, p. 527. It is taught by your unblush- 
ing priests, that the saints have not only merit in God's sight to procin-e their own 
salvation, but they have an immense surplus thereof, which they kifidly lend to 
others: and the pope has generously assumed the keeping of this fund; and as 
generously weighs it out, for ready gold and silver, to the simple faithful ! Hence, it 
is obvious that the entire foundation of saving faith is taken away. I do not deny that 
there are pious men in 3'our church ; but if there be, they are where they ought never 
to be. But that victim of your delusions, who believes as the Roman church believes, 
and dies in its faith, must either leave heaven, or Jesus Christ must leave it. They can- 
not possibly live in the same heaven! As surely, then, as Christ's cause must 
flourish, so surely must popery wither away and perish utterly. 

Second : — The day is coming when the contradictions so glaring in the system of 
Popery; and its jarring elements, will cause every man of sense, forthwith, to aban- 
don it, as infamous. A folio volume might be filled with gleanings of these: I can 
give only a few specimens. The Roman church calls itself christian, — yet there is 
now, no one doctrine of Christ which it has not altered, and completely changed- 
■"You are saved by grace," says our Lord. " No ! ye are saved by ^^onr own works, 
and the merits of th,e saints!" Says your Lord, the Pope. "By the deeds of \hp 
law no flesh shall be justified," says our Lord "By the deeds of the la>Y, all good 
Roman catholics are justified," says your lord, the pope. "Thou shalt worship the 
Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve," says our God. "You shall worship 
and invoke angels and saints, and Mary the queen of heaven, the great mediatiix 
between God and man," says your god the pope. " By his one sacrifice and one offerr 
ing, Christ has perfected them that are sanctified," says our Lord." "No! in the 
mass we offer up conlinuq:lly a real propitiatory sacrifice, to a})pcase God, for the 
rpiick and the dead," says your lord, the pope. 

Our God has prohibhed the making of images for religious use and service, and 
enjoins us " not to bow down to them." "This by no means forbids us to make, 
and use images in worship,"' says your l,ord in the Trentine Catechism, par. iii. sect, 
.33, &c. 

Our God prohibits all images of himself, — " Take good heed to yourselves, for 
ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake to you in llorob, lest 
ye corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image, the similiiitde af any figure!''' 
♦'No, this is not to be obeyed," say your lord, the pope, and the Trentine fatliers,-— 
" for no ollence is committed against God's law to express, and shadow out, by signsi 
any of the persons of the Trinity," — "it is lawful toijhadow out the Trinliy by some 
figures." See Trent. Catech. p.ait iii. s.e^'t, 30. p. 3.50, 

Our God prohibits male and female images to be made, for religious uses, or wor? 
^hip. "Take heed to yourselves, — lest ye corrupt yourselves, — and make the sinii^ 
Ji-lycle of any figure the likeness of male, or female!'' Dcut. iv. J5. 30. "This vye 



2.36 ROMAV CATHOLIC COyTLOVKRiT. 

do not obey, nor believe," cr\- your lord, the Pope, and the Councils of Holy Mother. 
— "We do make, and we shall make, and we shall adore images of male saints, and 
of female saints ."' 

Tbe regenerate have to mourn the power, and evil fruits of sin that dwelleth in 
them. "I delight in the law of God after the inner man," says St. Paul. — --But I 
S€e another law in my members warring against the law of my mind ; and bringing 
me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members." Rom. vii. 22. 
'• This is not true; it is heresy," — cries j^our lord, by the voice of the Trent Fathers. 
*• There is nothing in the regtnerate that God can hate : and that they are inwardly 
•pure, and without sipot.'" See Coucil. Trent. Sess. 5. And while the^- hold that he is 
thus "pure inwardlv, and without spot : and while there is nothing in him that God 
hates," they teach that, with all this perfection and love of God. '• a man doubts, and 
must doubt, his salvation as long as he is in this life :" and needs purgatory, after alii 
tSee Trent. Conf. 6. chap. 9. 

It is a standard doctrine of Rome that each of their seven sacraments "conveys 
grace." Nay, more than that, — in the mass, by the wafer, there is conveyed into 
each of their church members, a real, whole, and entire Jesus Christ : he is in them. 
Hence the prayer we formerly noticed in the Litany of St. Sacrament, in the. 
Manual of Godly Prayers, — " O word, made flesh, and dwelling in us, have mercy 
on us." This is addressed to '*the Christ tn them," after he is swallowed in the 
wafer. Xow, all men, who choose to say that they are of Holy 3Iother, — even all 
who choose to come under the priests' care; even the most infidel, and flagitious who 
walk the earth, can possess the "real grace," — and what you call the divine and 
only Savior, as really in them, as food is in the stomach i And yet, at the moment 
of taking in thi% special grace, and real Savior, they are living- in mortal sins against 
the law of God. And hence, when they die, — they descend, not into purgatory,-=- 
that is too good for them; they descend into hell, with the special grace of Saint 
Sacrament — and with " the real and true Jesus Christ dwelling in them.'" That is, 
they take grace and "the true Savdor," to hell, along with them! ! 

Hence, in perfect consistency with all this mass of absurdity and contradic- 
tion, the Rhemish annotators teach, "that wicked men and even reprobates, if they 
only remain in the public profession of the church;" that is, the Romish church. 
" are true members of the body of Christ." Rhem. An. in. Joh. 15, Sect. 1. And 
therefore, it is of no consequence how a man lives, — the most obstinate unbeliever, 
the adulterer, the mm-derer, the liar, the thief, the perjured, are all safe, if they only 
say,-^\es, only sat it to the priest, that they do belong to "Holy Mother church:" 
and do swallow down into their stomachs " the real Jesus in the wafer," they are quite 
safe I They may probably be subjected to a scorching and severe singeing in purga- 
tory, — but they will ^ertainl^' for the matter of a few dollars and cents, get out of 
even that- The Romish church, and doctors laugh to scorn those who teach the need 
of "sa\ang inward grace, and a new birth." Xothin? more is needed, says Bellar- 
mine, than "the external profession, and their union to Mother church." See Bell. 
Lib. iii. De Eccles. cap. 2. And we need only to add, here, their sentiments 
respecting the holy scriptures, in which, as we have fully proved, they embrace reso- 
lutely the most inveterate deism ! 

Nothing is more certain, therefore, than this, that the Romish church is strictly 
and properly speaking the mother of deism. She rejects, and even ridicules that 
which the Bible makes the test of discipleship in the christian: — "If any man be in 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 287 

Christ, he is a new creature." This, to the pope and his bishops, as you well know, 
Fathers, is a nauseous, and disgusting doctrine. She takes away the very fountain 
head of purity, virtue, and godliness. Hence she is as much the mother of vice and 
all abominations, as she is the mother of deism! 

Does any man ask for proof? You can see it on every p&ge of your decretals, 
canons, aad books of doctrine! You can see it in your late pope's Bull against the 
Bible, and all Bible societies ! You can see it in the opposition of every Romish 
priest, directed with a persevering, and rancorous malignity, against the reading of 
the holy scriptures. You can see it in their diabolical efforts to burn every Bible 
which they can find in the hands of the laity ! You can see it in the flagitious lives 
of the priests ; especially in all lands where poepry reigns in power. You know it 
to be a canon of your house, and a practical law of popery, that priests may keep 
iheix concubines : but wo, wo be to those, who shall, like good old St. Peter, marry 
and support an honest wife ! To live in the damning sin of fornication, the Romish 
church has granted a free canonical toleration to every "holy" priest in her service I 
Should the priests dare to marry, they are forthwith guilty of a mortal sin ! But 
should they keep concubines, and frequent the houses which "lead to the chambers of 
death," they are quite honest, clean, and pure priests! Nay, Fathers, blush not 
while you atfect 10 frown! I appeal to facts. Every body sees it here. And it is a 
recorded fact of history, that the priests of Italy, Spain, Naples, Austria, are a coij- 
gregation of whoremongers of the most infamous and unblushing class! Eventhe 
nobles of these countries, bad as they are, — blush for them ! — Hence also deism covers 
these lands. Both priests and the people, of the better and well informed class ; 
and those who read for themselves, are all deists, — nay, Fathers, they are atheists!" 
*'I must either worship the virgin Mary, or no one," — said a genteel Italian, to my 
friend Dr. Avery, while in Rome: "And I chose as a man," continued he, "to 
worship no God! For, if this be the true and only religion, then say I deliberately, 
there is no God!'''' And this expresses the sentiments of nearly the whole body of the 
middling and higher classes of that community ! It is not in human nature to be 
otherwise. The master craft of Satan prevails over the human reason and judg- 
ment, in these popish lands of J;he darkness of the shadow of death. Under the influ- 
ence of your church's diabolical prieslcraft, men are taught, are tempted, are con- 
strained to reject all that is named christian, by those villainous priests' lips; nay, to 
laugh to scorn even the existence of a God ! I appeal to the most manifest facts of 
history ; and what every traveller sees with his eyes ; and hears with his ears. 
Every popish country, thoroughly imbued with popery, is a land of deism and athe- 
ism! No sober man ever thinks of doubting it. The priests and bishops, as Mr. 
Noah, in the Evening Star, justly observed of Bishop England, "are merely me7i of 
the world, and 'politicians.^'' They traffic in the ghostly trade of popery : they deal 
in masses, and confessions and purgatory for ready money. They care no more 
for the arlicks they deal in, than the Yankee does for his ivooden nutmegs. Providing 
they gel ready money and can conceal the craft, in order to make another draft on 
the simple faithful, when ihey are again in funds, they care for nothing, ])rc8ont, or 
future; for nothing in heaven, or in purgatory, or in hell!! They laugh in derision 
at hell, and heaven ! It is the trade they have been brought up to; and they follow 
it as the farmer, or the jockey, or the gambler does his vocation. The sole object of 
Romish priestcraft is gain, and guilty pleasure! 

Hence, popery, by its deism and atrocious vices, and its tyranny over the souls and 



2SS F.OMA-V CATHOLIC COyTE.OVZF.ST. 

bodies of men : and by it5 systematic robbery of its victims, and exactions for masses, 
and at the confessional^ is infallibly working its own ruin, and total downfall. The 
explosion of the old French Revolution was one legitimate effect of popery. It 
gendered the deism of the French: and thence t':eirartei>m. And, like the unguarded 
man who is blowing np rocks according to rule, it lays the train, unwittingly, to 
blow itself up, in an hour when it thinks not of it. And just as certainly as deism, 
the firuits of popery, oTertumed the house of the Bourbon, Louis 'KYI : and just as cer- 
tainly as the Jesuits' excess of zeal for Holy 31other produced the explosion vi hich 
drove the priest ridden Charles X. from his throne, — so certainly is popery laying 
the train over Ital}', Naples- Spain, Portugal, and Austria, which will, ere long, 
produce such another explosion, as Europe has never yet witnessed. For. — 

" There wiU never be peace while Anti-Chiist reigns 1" 

I -dTz. Pv.rv. Fathers, yours, ^c. 

W, C. B. 



LETTER XXVI. 



TO THE LORD ARCHEISHOP. AVf THE LOBDS BISHOPS. OF THE F.0MA>' CATHOLIC 
CHURCH. I>' THE r>'ITZD STATES. 

On the symptoms of decay, and certain ruin, in the Romish cliurch. 

••Tlie JIaii of Sin. shall be revealed, the Son of Perdition, who. a= God. sinetb in tho 
temple of God. sho^ving himself that he i= God." — 2 Thess. ii. 

Revefevd FatheB-s: — In addition ro rev former tico specificatioiis. I hsve, 
thirdly, to beg your patient admi^ion of another severe, but most manilesr truth, on 
this point. It is this : — The gross immorality of popery, and demoralizing tendency of 
aU its peculiar tenets, indicate the certain decay, and ruin of that system. 

It were an easy matter to show that the Romish church has, in theory and practice, 
repealed all, and each, of the ten commandments. In reference to the f rst and second, 
behold your new gods, saints, ansfels- and images! The third they abrogate, by 
giving to their idols, and saints, the divine titles, attributes, and works, — " Holy 3Iary, 
tor instance, is Mediatrix between Godand man." They appoint days of worship, and 
institute ordinances to adore and praise them, and they swear by them, to the neglect 
and contempt of the only true Grod. The fourth precept is virtually repealed, by 
their institution of the days now alluded to, which are kept holier than the Sabbath. 
By a late ball of the pope, which was published in the Episcopal paper of Philadel- 
phia, the holy priests are prohibited from going into theatres, on Wednesdays cmd 
Fridays; as a mortal sin! But they may go into theatres on the Sahbath day! 
And this is actually done, as every traveller well knows, in all caihohc Europe, and 
in South America, and even in New Orleans, in our own country I It is, indeed, a 
matter of recorded history, that just in proportion as popery prevails in anv land, is 
the Sabbath of the Lord desecrated, and utterly despised ! This follows as naturally 
as our other position, that popery is the parent and nurse of deism I 

The Jijih precept is abrogated by placing the clergy above the law, and ^-ithout the 
reach of civil law, and above the judgment bar of the magistracy, in Roman cathoMc 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 289 

lands: and by the insolent usurpation of the pope, in setting subjects free from their 
oath of allegiance to their lawful rulers. This power is acknowledged by all bishops, 
as you very well know, Fathers. And as soon as you can gain an ascendency, here, 
you have your secret instructions, you know; ^nd you are bound by your oath, to 
loose all the citizens from their oath of allegiance to our republic ; and to own, as in 
duty bound, allegiance to the pope, "your only legal superior." This is enjoined on 
every bishop, in his oath,— namely, to sustain and support the pope's power against 
all princes, and presidents ! And this you would do, to render God a service b}^ set- 
ting men free from the power and rule of our magistrates, whom you curse and 
denounce as heretics ! This, you are aware, is manifest from the words of vour oath ; 
and from your books. And it has been actually done in every country in Europe, 
where the pope has been, by the wrath of God, permitted to rivet his galling chains 
-on the neck of magistrates and people. Hence the cases of king John of England, 
.and the Emperor Henry IV. of Germany, whom he trampled under his feet ! 

" Thou shalt not kill.''' — This sixth precept they repeal by opening an asylum t© 
murderers; and preventing murderous priests from suffering the due penalty of th« 
civil law; by preaching the doctrine of "no faith with heretics," and by teaching 
that it is lawful, and even praiseworthy, in God's eyes to murder heretics, and all 
enemies of "Mother Church." Hence the applauded assassinations of princes, and 
other men by your members ; hence your authorized, and applauded massacres, per- 
secutions, and inquisitions ? Popery is a system which patronises murder hy whole- 
sale ! And we will show in another Letter, that the scarlet Beast has already on its 
hands, and its head, the hlood of sixty-eight millions of human beini^s, — murdered ija 
cold-blooded j^ersecutions ! 

The abrogation of the seventh precept is, par excellence, the most noted trait of the 
Romish church. The scriptures of the New Testament, with all its perfect refine- 
ment, calls that church "The whore of Babylon ;" "the mother of harlots," — "the 
mother of fornication. " See Rev. xvii. She is shadowed forth as a "drunken wo- 
man, — drunk with the blood of the saints!" Nay, she is — pardon me, I use Bible 
phrases, — " a Beast in all pollution !" See ver. 3, and 11. 

I have materials in my possession describing the character, and vices oftlic clei-oy, 
which I cannot put down in English! It would make e\:en the profligate shudder, 
.and cry out, for shame ! And, if it be so bad to name, — or even to allude to it, — what 
a horrid scene would it present, to lift up from the haunts of nuns and monks, the 
veil which keeps the public from looking, with steadfast eye, at the priests of Rome, 
as they really are ! I beg leave to refer my reader to the pages of the Romish writer 
Nich. Clemangis; and to Edgar's Variations, last chapter, on "The celibacy of the 
Romish clergy." 

It is notoriously known that houses of infamy, are publicly licensed at Rome, In/ 
the pope, and that he receives, quarterly, his shares of the wages of infamy and crime \ 
And did I set down here the materials furnished me by my friend Dr. Avery, who 
resided a whole winter at Rome, it would fill all honest men wiih horror at the vices 
of the past, and present priesthood of Rome! And yet, one of your own number, 
bishop England, in violation of all truth, and the dictates of his own conscience, 
bepraises these infamous adulterers, and ghostly debauchees, as " holy and virtuous 
men." — "Heaven save the mark !" 

Why, the men and women of Sodom and Gomorrah, were quite modest, and vir- 
.tuous personages compared to the priesthood of Rome., in ages past, and at this dav 

26 



^90 ROiI.A?r CATHOLIC COXTROTZKsT. 

In Spain, the council of Toledo, lq its 17th~caj]on. allowed priests to have concuhiMS. 
publicly ; but lo marry was procDiiiiced, in them, a deadly sin! In manv parts of 
-that country, the priests have as nunaerous families, as any honest men have! They 
<jTe holy fathers^ without wives ! The Roman writer Clemangis says, — -'The adul- 
tery, impurity, obscenity, drunkenness, and revellings of the clera^. are beyond all 
description !" See Cleman. 2S. Lenfan. i. 70. Others of their own writers declare 
the. Romish clergy over all England, Ireland, France, Spain. Italy, " as a conira- 
temity of the filthiest, and most infamous fornicators I SeeBruy. iii. 610. 3Iezeray 
IY.490. Gildas Ep. 23. 38. M. Paris 8.— "The priests almost universally, would 
hasten from their haunts of infiimy, and drankenness, to celebrate mass,'* says Lab- 
beus, " and feared not to touch the body of the Lord, with most polluted hands. " 
vol. XV. 247, and vol. xix. 3S9. Even "holy" councils treated purity and chastity 
with bitter sarcasm. These "holy" fathers, wherever congregated in councils, turn- 
ed the city, where they met, into a Sodom; then with unblushing and diabolical 
assurance boasted of "it! After the council of Lyons, for instance, Cardinal Hugo, 
in his speech to the citizens, had the characteiistic assurance to say, — "WTien the 
holy coimcil assembled here, you h^d heo or three houses of bad fame. But now. 
there is only one ! But that one extends from the east gate, to the west, without in- 
terruption !" See Labb. xvi. pp. ]4-35, 1436. 

In the council of Basil, the holy fathers taught the theory, ■which was reduced to 
practice, in the coitncils preceding it, namely, those at Lyons, and Constance. It 
was in that Romish assembly, publicly advocated, that "houses of infamy ictrt 
necessary end proper I" And what crowned the climax of damning infamy. — •• ih« 
horrible atrocity was sanctioned by the holy, unerring, apostolic, Roman church."' 
See the fact stated in Labb. vol. xvii. p. 9S6. 958. And Canisins iv. p. 457. Edgsi 
p. 51 S. Hence they form a portion of the papers revenues 1 How appropriately she 
is, by you, baptized, — Holy Mother! 

The eighth precept is repealed in the Roman church, by turning the temple of God 
into a place of merchandize. All things have been, and still are, set up for sale at 
Rome to the highest bidder: — namely, "the priesthood, — bishoprics, and even the 
chair of St. Peter;** and prayers, and masses, and *'the souls of men!" For pur- 
gatory is nothing more than " a ghostly market place,** — opened up for the sale of 
masses, and trade in human souls! For the fixed price, any soul is set free from 
its pains, and put to "repose:** and without the stipulated price, no soul is delivered. 
And as this place, is purely a fiction of priestcraft, as every one of you knows very 
well. Reverend Fathers, — ^all the money procured by masses, and for delivering 
souls out of pmrgatory, is just so much property got under false pretences, and by 
sheer forgery! You not only procure money by purgatory, but you sell the king- 
donri of heaven to the highest bidder. Ton usher all your victims, you tell us. 
infallibly into heaven, according to the sums fixed by the apostolical tariff. Absclu- 
tigo, and a passage into hea^v en, are given to those of you who receive it, and pay 
the church's dues !" Now, Fathers, whether does that man, or your Romish church, 
o3er the greatest outrage to the eighth command ? He. who sells lands in the Texa?, 
and receives the ready money, while he owns not one square yard there :— or tht 
pope, and his priesthood^ who seU, far money, the kingdom of heaven : while every 
one of vou knows that you have neither title, nor deed to the smallest portion of that 
kingdom! This venality of Kome has passed into a proverb in all lands. Hence 
Ae sacerdotal watchword. — " Xo penny, no pater nost^r !'■ And Chemnitius in his 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 291 

Examen, has given us the copy of the following verses, written over an altar in a 
popish cathedral. 

"Ut tibi sit poenaD venia, sit aperta crumena, 

Hie datur exponi Paradisus venditioni, 

Hie si large des, in coelo sit tua sedes, 

Pro solo nummo, gaudebis in asthere summo!" 

Which may be rendered thus : — *' That you may have the free remittance of punish- 
ment, only let your purse be widely open ! Here Paradise is set forth, end exposed 
to sale ! Here, if you give liberally, in heaven shall be 3^our abode ! For the paltry 
affair of money only, can you rejoice in the highest heavens!" 

The ninth precept you repeal, by the false witness you have borne, as a churchy 
against God's people, for upwards of a thousand years. Not only as a bod}^ have 
the Roman catholics uttered the foulest slanders against the best of men, whom they 
put to death, under the slanderous name of hereiics : but individual members deem it 
a virtue in the sight of God, to utter slander against all the ^ hurches, and ministry, 
and pious members of the Reformation ! Open the popish books ; listen to the usual 
declamation of priests, and monks, and friars, of catholic Europe; and our own 
country, — and you will perceive that no measured teims are observed with the Pro- 
testant world ; and those who differ in the minutest point from "Holy Mother!" 
All men not within your pale, you pronounce accursed, and certainly doomed to per- 
dition. This is the immutable, and very charitable doctrine of "Holy Mother." 
The ninth precept has, therefore, no practical place in your bloody code! 

Finall}'-, the tenth precept is repealed by your whole system, which is one entire 
and thoroughly concocted system of covetousnese, and a cunningly devised scheme of 
money making ; — from the vending and selling- cardinals' hats, and the pope's tiara, 
down to the manufacture o1^ scapulars, and the selling of consecrated beads, and relics! 
And in theory, this holy precept is repealed by the Jesuit doctrine of your sect, that 
*' the emotions of coveiousness in the human soul,, are no sins at all, unless sanction- 
ed by the consent of the man !" That is, — " sin dwelling in us," is no sin! 

Thus, popery has in it the elements of inveterate corruption! And, according to 
the eternal laws of heaven in the natural, and moral world, it must be dissolved, and 
utterly destroyed by its own internal elements. Such errors, — such heresies, and 
infamous vices will necessarily annihilate popery; as time will reveal. 

I have not noticed distinctly, here, the political tenets of popery; its tyranny over 
the body, and the soul of man ; its incessant, and unsubduablc aim at universal, and 
unlimiied power, by chaining down nations, and fixing ihem, m the most wretched, 
and degraded slavery, as bond slaves to tug at its bloody car ! To this 1 must devoto 
a separate Letter. 

I have only to observe, at present, that tyranny is the soul and spirit of popery / 
Take away that, and thereby set the nations free, and it will speedily die, and be dis- 
solved, and utterly annihilated. No man knows this more accurately than priests. 
No man is more thoroughly persuaded of this truth than those men Avho arc hired to 
tvrite it up in our oominunity ; and who labor to })ersuadc their victims that the genius 
^fV^V^^y ^^' — inirahile dicta! the fostering genius of liberty and the rights of man ! 

Now, Fathers, the eyes of the nations are opening. This deadly hostility of 
popery to the rights and liberties of mankind, is working its downfall, in Mexico, and 
In the SoMth; aiid in.ou.r own happy republic: and ovcnhe Roiuau catholic nations 



2^2 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVER3T. 



of Europe. And I tell you, Fathers, that the pope, and his minions, may as sooa 
chain the winds, and hurl back the lightning of heaven, as keep the nations o-f 
Europe much longer in the grasp of its ferocious claws, and the bloody dungeoBS of 
its unheard of tyranny. 

I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



LETTER XXVII. 



TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLli; 
CHURCH, IN THE UNITE© STATES. 

On the internal symptoms of certain decai/j and ruin in Popery. 

" They that see thee, shall look narrowly upoPx thee, and consider thee, saying, is this the 
man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms ?"' Isaiah, xiv. 16. 

Reverend Fathers : — The influences of an apostate and false religion are as 
necessary and certain, in their kind, as ate- those of the pare and holy religion of 
Christ. But, while they are equally certain and necessary, they are perfectly oppo- 
site to each other. A false religion is the parent of ignorance and superstition : it 
throws a deep and impenetrable cloud of darkness over the gloomy minds of its vic- 
tims. But the holy religion of Jesus scatters the most joyous rays of light and truth 
over free and happy minds. A false religion hates the light, shuns discussion ; and 
locks up the sacred fountain of truth, and refuses even a solitary rill to thread its 
way over the arid plains of the desert. The religion of Jesus courts the fullest and 
freest investigation: it fears nothing: it throws open the pure sparkling fountain of 
the waters of life and bids every one come forward, and receive it as freely as the air 
which he breathes; and the flood of light which is poured around him. False reli- 
gion is a gloomy, and horrid tyrant grinning on his throne of darkness over his pros- 
trate and trodden down votaries : true religion is a holy being from the skies, lovely 
as the face of Jesus, smiling on us. An apostate religion wields his iron maee ; and 
his clanking chains; he points to dungeons, and cells, and the horrid Inquisition's 
tribunal; and talks, when he deigns to converse, of penances, and of purgatorial 
fires ! True religion speaks in accents of redeeming love : and leads the weary and 
the blind, and the halt, and the lame, to the healing fountain, and everlasting com- 
forts ! False religion kindles the fire of inhuman persecution, and lights up the 
blazing beacon cf deadly wars, and deluges the nation with human blood ! True 
religion breathes nothing but love, pure and undying as the love of angels : it 
cleanses the heart, and binds man to man in ties never dissolved even in eternity. 
It never raised the war shout: it never prompted to deeds of resistance, except in self 
defence, according to heaven's first and necessary law. False religion debases the 
human mind, and brutalizes the people with atrocious vices, which, so far from check- 
ing, it rather nurses; not purely from an enmity to the Most High, so much as from 
its accursed lust of gold, in turning sin into a very lucrative article of trade and gain, 
by means of penances, and indulgences ! True religion exalts the mind, and ele- 
vates the humblest in society to the nobility of soul, which characterizes thft 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 293; 

c-hrrstian, and which makes him scorn a mean, and wicked action. False religion 
leads on its disciples, blindfold, to the precipice impending over the gulf of perdition. 
True religion leads man over the barren wilderness, v/ith a cloudy pillar by day, 
and a shining fire by night, while the smitten rock ministers to them in streams of 
consolation, the purest and most exalted joys! True religion, in a word, waxes, 
brighter and brighter in virtue and glory, until she reaches her own native skies, and 
the palace of the King of Heaven. False- rehgion has, in her, the seeds of death and 
dissolution; and exists after death, — only in her horrid works, and images in hell! 

Fathers, — behold the one on the papal throne, putting forth its influences like the 
smoke, and nameless phantoms, as seen in vision by Joha, issuing out of the mouth 
of the bottomless pit.. Behold the other, clothed in the robe of light, walking forth 
over the protestant nations and shedding her choicest blessings on the people who 
own Immanuel, Jehovah Jesus, for their king. And we bless God, that the time is 
now fast coming when the pure, one, and holy religion of Jesus will cover the whole 
earth with a flood of glory. For false and apostate religions, with Rome at their 
iiead, are tumbling into ruins by their own innate corruption, like the old tottering 
weatner beaten tower walls, smitten by the gleaming thunder bolt of heaven ! 

I have enumerated three of the internal symptoms of decay and certain ruin of 
popery. The spirit of your church is the spirit of antichrist :. hence, — 

Fourth : — The Roman catholic church has formally condemned the essential, and 
holiest doctrines of the gospel. In addition to those formerly specified, 1 add the fol- 
lowing from Tom. i. Indicis Librorum expurgandorum. ^'c. Of the index of Books 
expurgated, by Jo. Mariam Brans. Master of the sacred apostolic palace; Rome, 
3,607. Under the title '•'■ Bihlia RoK Stephani,'''' we find the following : "From the- 
Index of these Bibles, on the books of the Old and New Testament, let there be blotted 
out the following propositions as suspected of heresy: viz: — 

1. "Sins are remitted to the believer in Christ." 

2. "The believer in Christ shall never die eternally.'* 

3. " The Holy Spirit is received by faith." 

4. " Our hearts are purified by faith." 

5. " God- prohibits images to be made that we may adore them ; and bow ourselves, 
down before them." 

6. " There is no righteousness in us :" Rom. vii.. 18. 

7. "We are justified by faith in Christ." 

8. " Christ is our righteousness." 

9. " There is no justifying righteousness from the works of the law." 

10. "There is none just before God." 

11 . " Believers are about to enter into their rest. 

12. " We are not set free (from sin) on account of our works." 

13. " God desires, or wills, all men to repent." 

14. "Repentance is the gift of God." 

1.5. " The word of God alone is to be obeyed. "^ 

16. " That each man may have liis own wife." 

These pure and evangelical propositions are condemned by the Romish church a* 
"damnable heresy!" Hence your church errs mortally in doctrine. Your whole 
system of doctrine is, in fact, as opposite, and Jis hostile to the .'•^.implu and holy gospel 
of Christ, as is the code of Mohammed ; or the Shaster of the Hindoo! And just as 
certainly as the church stands, or falls with these doctrines; — so certainly docs that 



294 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSr. 

apostate church, which dares utter its veto against heaven's eternal law, and dectevs^f 
— bear, in it, the elements of its speedy and irretrievable ruin ! 

" He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh y 

The Lord shall have thorn in derision : 

He shall speak to them in his tvrath ; 

And vex them in bis sore displeasure ; 

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, 

Thou shalt dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel. "^ 

Fifth: — The jarring- elements in your church, relative to the grand fundamental 
tenet of the papal svpreynacy, are now working the ruin of your sect. 

This I call a fundamental doctrine : it is the foundation of the whale system. O^i 
it rest your claims of infallibility, and the impossibility of the church of Rome 
erring! On it rests the pope's claim of absolute power over your souls, thoughts, 
faith, bodies, and property! By it, he is the potter, and you the clay and dust! By 
it, he wields the potent sceptre over kings as well as bishops. By ir, he opens heaven 
to his favorites, and slaves : and dooms all heretics to hell ! By it he places his 
lialf washed flock, in the fires, and waters of purgatory, that complete the work, 
which:, he avows, the infinite merits of Christ's blood could not do! It is, in fine, 
the rnain pillar of popery, the master-piece of Satan's deep laid conspiracy against 
the rights of man I 

Now, God, in mercy ta mankind, has not permitted this execrable evil to enter ouf 
^vorld, without an element in it, which will destroy it. I allude to the wars, and 
feuds in "■ holy and infallible Mother," on this matter. 

You, Fathers, and your priests have taken much pains to convince the American 
public that j^ou own the pope, not as a civil prince, — not as possessing any temporal 
power at all, — but simply as a spiritual head of union. Now, were it even so, it is- 
dangerous enough to our republic to have men, — even the whole of your bishops, 
and all your priests, and all your members absolutely at the spiritual nod, which is 
far more potent than the political nod, of a foreign despot ; who, in case of a war 
with any of his favorite powers, would lay you all under an injunction to risa 
against our government, to a man, under the terrific pains of purgatory, and the eter- 
nal pains of hell ! 

But, you do own this foreign despot as much as a temporal prince, as you do own 
him as a spiritual head. You know it, Fathers ; you have never disowned this; it is 
beyond any man's gainsaying. Your oath to him as bishops, binds you, under pains 
of eternal perdition, to own, and assist,, and sustain the pope in all his characters, 
])0%srs, rights, and claims. And, let me tell your people, — and you know it well, — 
that if an}^ one of you dared to disown his temporal poiver^ to his face,, in Rome, or 
ia any Roman catholic nation in Europe, you would forthwith be stript of your 
bishopric, hurried into a dungeon, and loaded with chains. Dr. England can tell you 
how many instances, and proofs he has seen of this. I invite Dr. England to stand up 
before the American nation, and publicly disavow the temporal power of the pope. 

Besides the struggles which have already been displayed by your priests against 
the office of Wardens in 3'our church in the United States, show clearly ejiough that 
the priesthood are determined to exercise absolute power over the temporals, and the 
property of the church. Mons. Reze, in a letter to a person in Europe, and published 
in a printed "Report," which reached us, says, — "Mgr. the bishop of Cincinnati, 
has the happiness of governing his churches, without church Wardens.'^ " Were we 



ItOMAS CATHOLIC CONTEOVERSf. 295 

to estabiisli them, they might be useful to us, but we should fear schims, dissefltions-, 
of all evils the greatest. Despotism exercised against the pastor, and division, and- 
disorder, in many other churches, assure us ()if this." And in "the Annals," you 
state that, in the national council which met at Baltimore in 1829, you discussed" 
this subject, — "What is necessary to be done in regard to trustees, and the means of 
repressing their pretensions.''^ And you pronounce this a struggle between the claims 
of priests and laymen to exclusive power over all temporals, and church property^ 
This is a plain, and irresistible evidence of the pope and his priests' unalienabl* 
claims to temporal power. And, finally, did you ever yet hear of a Romish national^ 
ehurch existing without such a union of church and state, that the church has an^^ 
absolute power over the state, and guides the conscience of even the king, as a tutor 
guides a child. The papist, be he priest or layman, who ventures to tell the Ameri- 
can public that he owns not the pope's temporal power, must have no ordinary a 
4egree of unblushing effrontery ! 

But, even admitting that you do not, here then you form another great faction in 
tte bosom of Holy Mother. You differ, hereby, on the pope''s supremacy, from your 
European fellow members in the church. 

In Europe there are four prominent factions in Holy Mother's bosom. Theirs* 
maintains the pope to be supreme, as a president, — ■" the pope is only the first of 
the bishops." He has power, not legislative, but executive only ; he is inferior to a- 
general council ; and is by no means infallible : and has no right to depose kings. 
This is the prevalent doctrine of the French catholic ehurch. See Bupin Biss. p. 
835, Lenfent i. p. 107. Gibert iii. p. 366. This sentiment was held by the early 
popes, as Pius, Julius, Zozimus, Adrian. See Lannoy, i. p. 295, 314. Dupin 442. 
It was also the avowed doctrine of three general holy councils, namely, of Pisa. See 
Dupin Dissert. 404. ; also of Constance ; see Gibert ii. p. 7. Labbeus xvi. p. 73 r 
and of Basil; see Labb. xvii. 236, 390. And Dupin Hist. iii. 38. 

The second Roman faction invests the pope with unlimited sovereignty, they make 
him a temporal and spiritual despot, even the same precisely in " their church," as the- 
grand Turk, or the great Mogul is in his realm. He has power unlimited over all 
bishops and priests; over all princes, and kings, and nations; be they heathen, or 
christian : be they Protestant, or Roman catholic. Hence he is superior to councils*. 
This is the doctrine of the Italian school. They add, that the pope, speaking as 
pope, ex cathedra, is absolutely infallible, " He is exempted from all possibility of 
ignorance, error, or mistake P^ See Bellarm. iv. 5. 8. p. 987 &c., and Dupin 
Diss. p. 333, Gibert iii. p. 36, 487 ; and Labb. xviii. p. 1428. This monstrous doc- 
trine is held by Bellarmine, Barronius, and other nineteen leading doctors. It has 
been also held, of course, by all the popes, except the early ones ; and by three^ 
general councils, namely, — of Florence, which made the pope absolutely infallible, 
and the vicegerent of Almighty God ; see Labb. xviii. p. 1310. Cajetan i. p. 10, 
Gibert i. p. 93. Also by the fifth council of the Lateran. And the coimcil of Trent, 
after an exasperated contest between the Italian bishops, on the one hand, and the 
French and Spanish bishops, on the other, declared for this infallibility and unliinitctl 
power in the church universal. See Cramp's Text Book; Gibert i. j). 181; Labb. 
XX. p. 96. 

Here, by the way, we find infallible doctors against equally infallible doctors; 
universities pitted against universities; councils against councils; and popes Dama- 
SU8, Felix, Pius, against popes Leo, Gregory, Urban, Paul, and Sixtus ! And all oi 



ayO ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST^ 

them gravely maiataining the unbroken, and' undisturbed unity, and- infallihility of 
Holy Mother ! 

The third faction actually raises the pope to an equality with God! This is not 
wonderful. The heathen interest, it might be shown, has triumphed in Rome, from 
the days of Constantine. They became universally christians, when the emperor 
declared for Christianity; as they would have declared themselves Hindoos^ had the- 
emperor been converted by the Brahmins ! And, hence, even to this day, under the- 
name and mask of the christian name, there has been a regular succession of pagcm> 
men, and women ; as thoroughly pagans, idolaters, and superstitious devotees, as ever 
lived, and moved, and had their being, in E-ome pagan! 

Now, the original pagans were duly accustomed to hear Domitian call himself iiSr 
his edicts, " Fester Bominus Deus,^'' ^-^your Lord GodP'' And Caligula called him- 
self Deus maximus et optimus f God, the greatest and best P' Hence, their 
iineal descendants in place, in fai-b, and in practice, very naturally and appropriately 
call the successor of the Neras, the Domitians, the CaUgulas — Noster Dominus Detts 
Papa I'' Our Lord God the pope!" This excites no surprise in the least. The 
pagan emperors were as pious, and holy, and respectable, as any one pope that ever 
sat on the old Saracen's stool, huraorousl}'- called the chair of St. Peter, since 606! 

You know, moreover, that the canon law of the Romish church, says, — " Papanon 
est homo!" The pope is not a man! "See Sext. Deer. L. i. Tit. vi. cap. 18. 
" The pope is a God, who has all power in heaven and in the earth." "None is like 
God, except the pope, either in heaven or in earth." See Turricr. Ques. 11 : Gianon 
aO c. 12, Bernard, p. 1725. Edgar, p. 159. 

Monstrous as this really is, and shocking to the ears of piety, there have been 
doctors, canonists, popes, and councils, as we have already seen, who have sane- 
tioned this damning blasphemy : and have appropriated to the spiritual despot of 
Rome, the titles, attributes, and work of Almighty God ! The canon law, we have 
seen, and the fifth Lateran council bestowed these honors on the pope. " The Lord 
our God, the pope!" is the title in Can. Extrav. Tit. 14. cap. 4. And this, be it 
remembered, is the salutation of the kneeling votary, who stoops to kiss the pope's 
foot. See Edgar's Var. for a complete specimen of these names, and titles of blas- 
fjhem}^ p. 160, 161. 

The fourth faction absolutely setting reason, piety, and common sense, outrageous- 
ly, at defiance, makes the f/ope superior to God.' The canon Law says, — "Habet 
plenitudinem, &c. He has the pleuitwde of power ; he is above all law and right :. 
he can change the substantial nature of things; and transform unlawful into lawful." 
Thuanus vi. p. 397. Gibert ii. p. 103. Durand i. p> 50. Edgar, p. 161. And even 
Bellarmine avov/s this. Premising that the pope cannot err, either in the decrees of 
faith, or in the precepts of morals, he sa3^s, — " This must be so, — or else, — secun- 
do, quia tunc necessario erraret etiam circa fidem. Nam, fides catholica docet om- 
nem virtutem esse bonam, omne vitium esse malum ; si autem papa erraret prascipi- 
endo villa, vel prohibendo virtutes, teneretur ecclesia credere vitia esse bona, et vir- 
tutes, raalas; nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare." De Pontif. Lib. iv. cap. 5^ 
Tom. i. p. 988. That is, — "if the pope should err by enacting vice, or prohibiting 
virtue, the church would be bound to believe that vices are virtues, and that virtues 
are vices, unless she could be willing to sin against her conscience." And in the 
council of the Lateran, this sentiment was openly avowed, — "that Pope Leo possess- 
ed power above all powers, both in heaven, and in eaith." — See Labb. xis. p. 924^ 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 297 

And this consummation of arrogance and blasphemy, is not confined to an obscure 
faction in Italy. It is avowed openly, and unblushingly taught in the most public 
manner by every pope, every bishop, every priest. " They arrogate to themselves 
the power of creating their Creator, nay, of communicating to their underlings, the 
power of mj king their Maker! Deum cuncta creantem, creant." Labb. Tom. xii. 
960. "Elevees a cet honneur supreme de creer la Createur!" See Bruy Tom. ii. 
p. 535. This, they assure us, gravely, they do in every mass. They convert, or 
create out of the wafer, "the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ." Now, 
that God can create himself is an utter impossibility! But these sons of Belial, and 
of holy Mother, i{ their word may be in aught believed, do this at every mass making! 
They do make a common business of doing, they say, what the Creator cannot do I 

Now, shall the throne of iniquity be established, which frameth mischief by a law! 
Can the seed of evil doers ever be renowned, in a temporal, or eternal well being 5 
Can such jarring doctrines, such monstrous claims and usurpations, which throw all 
paganism, and all ordinary wickedness, and all councils of pandemonium, into the 
back ground, exist long in power, in the dominions of the Holy and Just One! No, 
no: — It must waste away, and utterly disappear, as the fogs and vapors, charged 
with pestilence and death, in the natural world, are dispersed by the benevolence of 
the Deity ? I am. Rev. Fathers, yours, &c. 

W. C. B. 



LETTER XXVIII. 



TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OP THE ROMAN CATHOIilC 
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 

On the internal symptoms of decay, and self destruction in Popery. 

" Siquis dlxerit, in ministris, dum sacranienta conficiunt, et conferunt, non requ'n'iinteuti- 
onem, saltern faciendi quod facit ecclesia ; anathema sit .'" — Concil. Trident. 

Reverend Fathers : — In pursuing this subject I beg leave to observe, — Sixth: — 
That your doctrine of intention, carried out in its legitimate tendency, must ruin 
your system of popery, in the judgment of every man who puts himself to the trouble 
of thinking, for a moment, on the subject. Your church holds this doctrine: — " that 
the efficacy of the grace, conveyed by every one of your sacraments, depeiuls upon 
the intention of your officiating priest." If this intention be awanting on the part of 
the priest or bishop, then is the sacrifice without grace, without efficacy ; null, and 
void ! That is to say, — unless the priest oificiating, has an intention in his soul, con- 
science, and heart, to do that thing which "the church" intends that he should do; — 
unless he inlt udsin his soul and conscience, to make that sacrament, and the thing in 
the sacrament, to be just that thing wliich the church intends it to be — tlien there is 
no grace, nor efficacy in the sacrament. 

Now, that this doctrine is an essential article of your creed, is evident from the ex- 
tract at the head of this letter. Council of Trent, Sess. 7. Canon 11, — " Si quis &c. 
If any one shall say that the intention is not required of the ministers, when they 
make, and administer the sacraments, let him be accursed !" From youi standard 
book, — '■'■The abridgement of the Christian doctrine,'' — I copy the following: "Is 



Wo ROMAN CATHOLIC C0ITTE0VER8T. 

the intention of the minister to do that which Christ ordained, a condition, "without 
which the sacraments subsist not? Ans. It is ; as also the intention of the receiver, 
to receive what Christ ordained, &c." In all the sacraments, every adult receiver 
must have the intention, as well as the priest : otherwise the sacrament is null, and 
void! Doyle's Edition, 1833, p. 76. 

Nov/, it is astonishing that the inventors and fabricators of popery, should have al- 
lowed such a fatal doctrine to be embodied into their system. It can be accounted 
for only on the singular interposition of divine Providence, in pity to his bleeding and 
suffering church, in order to work the certain ruin of popery. Qwem vult Deus per- 
dere, jnius dementat. Whom God wishes to destroy, he first renders infatuated. 
This essential doctrine of intention, established by the decrees of the pope, and th« 
Trent Council, renders every thing utterly uncertain in your church. There is no 
one sacrament, no priesthood, no canon, no doctrine, in any degree certain, or eflft^ 
cacious. It destroys the pope's supremacy, and the church's infallibility : it de- 
stroys your articles of faith : it annihilates all peace, all hope, all comfort ! It shuts 
up, or rather expunges purgatory from the list of your fables, and shuts up, and bolts 
your gates of heaven against 3-ou all, who believe in the intention ! 

And even some of your own leading doctors have had the confession wrung from 
tlieir lips. They felt the appalling confusion into which this doctrine throws your 
system. "Nullus celebrans potest evidenter scire &c. "No priest," says one of 
tliem, "who celebrates, can know, evidently, whether he be baptized, or lawfally or- 
dained." See Gab. Siel, in Epit. Can. Missae. And Belarmine, while laboring to 
overturn another doctrine in his way, unwittingly is constrained to speak the truth, in 
the following extraordinary confession: — "No man can be certain, by the certainty 
of faith, that he does receive a true sacrament; because it depends upon the intention 
of the minister ; and no one can see another man's intention. Sacrcmentum non 
conficiatur sine inientione ministri, et intentionem alterius nemo videre possit.''^ Bell. 
Lib. Just. cap. 8. 

Now, in perfect accordance with the uncontradicted admissions of these great doc- 
tors, let me offer you, Reverend Fathers, a specimen of the necessary det-truction 
which this doctrine works over the whole field of your fabricated system. The in- 
novators who got up the Romish church, took it into their heads to enact seven sacra- 
ments : tiiat is to sa}^ — exactly five more than the Lord Jesus, the only King of the 
church, did divinel}' ordain. This is not all : you not only addec] five things humo- 
rously called sacraments, — you have romanhed the only two out of all existence, in 
\'our sect. We shall, however, let that pass. We need not stop gravely to refute 
each, when we are on your suicidal doctrine of intention, which actually executes on 
its own sacraments, what the noted Judas did on himself! 

The first is your Baptism. This you make essentially necessary to salvation. 
And hence this question, and atrocious doctrine put forth in your '■'• Abridgement of 
Christian doctrines,'"' p. 109. "Whither go infants that die 'without baptism? Ans* 
To that {)art of hell, where they suffer the pains of loss, but not the punishment of 
sense; and shall never see the face or God." 

But, by the doctrine of intention, no person in the Roman church can know that 
he is baptized. For he does not know, certainly, that the pjiest who baptized him 
was himself baptized : he knows not, certainly, that the bishop had "the intention" 
to ordain that priest, when he was apparently ordained. Hence, there is a double 
chance against his being a priest at all !. And, finally, he does not know whether th^ 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 299 

priest, who baptii^ed him apparently, had the intention to do it ! Hence, no member 
of the Roman chtirch can possibly have either a certainty of his baptism, or any 
soHd faith of being saved ! 

The second sacrament is " confirmation." It is not my design to stop here to re- 
fute this, or any other gaudy ceremony. It is enough to say that your elevating it to 
the rank of a sacrament, and your using oil and balm "to sign your victims with th« 
chrism, &c." are acts of persevering high treason against our Lord, the King of the 
Church, wlio never breathed one word, who never caused to be written in all the holy 
Bible, one sentence originating, or countenancing this superstition. We need olfer no 
farther refutation than the doctrine of intention. The person going up to the bishop 
to be conjirmed "by cross, oil, and balm," never can have any evidence of his con- 
firmation, for three reasons. He cannot certainly know that the bishop was baptized 
with intention ; nor that he was ordained with intention : and he has no evidence 
whatever that, in the act of his apparent confirmation by rubbing oil and balm on 
him, the bishop has in his soul the intention to give confirmation. Hence no benefit, 
n,o grace can arise to him, from this rite. 

" Holy Orders" is a third sacrament. By this, say you, " a character is given ;" 
by it "the grace is conveyed" to make a man a priest, a bishop, a pope. Now, it is 
with you of infinite importance, that it be done right. If any thing be awanting, 
particularly, if the intention to make the man a priest, a bishop, or a pope, is really 
awanting, then is this sacrament void. And the mmi apparently a priest, or a bishop, 
is only a lay man! And the flock under his spiritual care, has no sacraments, and 
thence, no grace ! — For you know, Fathers, that all the grace you ask, or at all car® 
for, is "that which a priest conveys by intention, through the seven sacraments. And, 
hence, to be under care of a priest, who is one only in appearance, is to be exposed, 
as you teach, " ^o certain damnation"" — -without even the poor chance, or the poorer 
benefit of purgatory. 

This is not all; as you can, by no means, prove the intention of the minister, you 
cannot prove that any one pope was ever duly inducted into his chair, as a baptized 
man, or a true priest of the church! You have no evidence to believe, that any of 
your bishops have been in "holy orders," or "ordained with the intentio?i! And 
thence, you cannot believe, (for you have no evidence) that any one of your priests 
has ever been "in holy orders," or "ordained with the inte?ition." There is not 
one man among you, guided by reason and evidence, who can, for a moment, believa 
that your church has a pope, or true bishop, or true priest in the whole world ! If 
any man ca^ beheve this, he believes without evidence; and, therefore, acts unlike u 
rational being! Every Roman catholic must, therefore, on this radical point, either 
cm.sz to act as a rational being ; or surrender the whole system of popery. 

A fourth sacrament is the Eucharist, and the Mass. Herein you worship "th« 
body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ." Now, you admit that there may be 
defects to render this sacrament void : particularly, if the intention of the priest is 
awanting. If he does not intend to turn the wafer into Christ; then it is not ChrisK 
And even you admit that, in this case, in worshipping that untransubstanliated wafer 
— €Lad not Christ, you are guilty of idolatry ! Now, it is impossible for any Roman 
catholic audience to have the evidence of the priest's intention as he rapidly mutters 
over the words, — "jFfoc est corpus meum,'" wliich, by a niarvcllous charm, turns th« 
real wafer into the real Christ. The must unblushing Jesuit dare not insult his vi«- 
lims, by even iusiauatiug that any one of them has the least evidence of his tnienrjow, 



300 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST* 

to make Christ out of the wafer. Hence, when they bow down, and worship tht 
Host ; they are worshipping what, they have not even the least shadow of evidence 
to beUeve, is the true God! Hence, the whole Romish church is actually worship- 
ping what they have no evidence, in the least degree, to believe is God, in the wafer. 
That is, the Romish sect are reduced to this dilemma; they either believe without 
any evidence; and thence act unlike rational beings, or, they are guilty of the mor- 
tal sin of idolatry ! 

But, to be brief, — let my readers be kind enough to apply this form of argument to 
the Jifth, and sixth popish sacraments, of Penance and Extreme Unction; and 
they will arrive at the same result ; that is, — the doctrine of intention takes away 
^11 certainty, all faith, all peace from the dying man, in the article of death. Even 
extreme unction brings him no relief. He is told, it is true, to believe that the anoint- 
ing him with oil, by the holy priest, ^^ conveys grace to his soid;'^ and makes him 
'•'•ready to die.^^ But, he has not the least shadow of a consoling proof that the priest 
has the intention. He may tell him so; but even there, the intention to tell the trutli 
may itself be wanting. He lives in a cloud of uncertainty ; and dies, alas i in men- 
tal confusion, and the dreariness of a dark, dark night : and sinks into an unknown 
state ! He has strayed far from his God, and Savior, being seduced by the unprin- 
cipled slaves of Antichrist, who have rejected the gospel, and enveloped themselves, 
and their victims, in an endless mist of uncertainty, and darkness; in order — Oh ! 
shame on human villainy, — to trade in souls, — and barter heaven's hoh'- light ; and 
sell God's unsold pathway to paradise, for filthy lucre ! 

Lastly, Matrimony is a seventh sacrament of popery. This very novel sacrament 
" conveys grace to those who enter into it; and j^et, Holy Mother scandalously denies 
this potent instrument of "conve3dng its grace^' to the one class of men in her, who 
of all other men under the sun, do stand the most in need of it, — I mean the priests ! 
Now, — for I let this pass, — by your doctrine of intention, there is not one married 
'Couple in our city, or in all the land, of all the Roman catholic church, that can exhi- 
bit even the slightest shadow of evidence that they are lawfully married. 

For, unless the officiating priest had the intention \n his soul, and conscience, atth« 
nuptial ceremony, to make the man and woman then standing before him, husband 
and wife, they are not married! This is not all. You require intention in the 
receiver, as well as in the minister officiating. If the bridegroom, as he takes th« 
woman's hand, does not intend in spul and conscience, to make that person his wife, 
they are not married ! And, to crown the chapter of chances against the luckless 
couple, — if the bride does not, at that moment, intend, in her soul, and conscience, 
40 m.ake that man her husband, they are not married ! Here are three chances against 
one ! And no person, no, not a catholic in all Christendom, can prove either th« 
priest's, the groom's, or the bride's intention! Hence, no couple in all the limits of 
*' catholicity," has even the shadow of evidence that they are not living in the mortal 
sin of concubinage ! And if they should die in that mortal sin, they are doomed for 
•ever to hell, without the benefit of purgatory ! 

This appalling doctrine is calculated to throw civil society into the greatest disor- 
der. One evil growing out of it, is this: — Divorces are sued out on this assumption, 
in Roman catholic countries. A man, or a woman goes into the proper court, in 
Rome, for instance, and declares, on oath, that, at the marriage ceremony, he, or sh€ 
had not the intention to be married: — Or, a villain, who "married" a young person 
■whom he could not otherwise gain to his wishes, — needs only to go into a ghostly 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 301 

court at Rome, and swear that he did not intend to marry that young woman wheja 
the nuptials were solemnized, — and the apparent marriage is dissolved! 

I refer my reader, for proof of this, to every intelligent traveller who has resided, 
any time, in Rome, and has taken the pains to visit these courts, by a priests' favor, 
and introduction. I refer also to Bishop Burnet on the thirty-nme articles, Article 25. 
He narrates what he witnessed in Rome, himself: and he adds "that such divorces 
are very frequent there." I refer also to T. Wardell's valuable Letters, on Intention, 
&c.p. 13. N.York, 1830. 

Seventh : — Your hostility to the progress of knowledge, and the sciences, will work 
the downfall of popery. 

The system of popery is hostile to the progress of the arts and sciences, — except only, 
painting and sculpture, which are, in a melancholy manner, dragged in, to minister 
their enchanting powers, to an idolatrous religion, bloodier, and more destructive than 
paganism ! The evidence of this hostility, is found in the Inquisition ; and the stern, 
unyielding Index )^xpurgatorius, by which almost every classic author of Britain, 
America, and France is prohibited. There is scarcely one of all the classic, English 
authors which a Roman catholic is allowed to read. Milton is a doomed author; 
Young also ; Covvper is in the Index ; Watts too ; our historians ; our immortal John- 
son ! All the renowned theologians of England, of Scotland, of America, of France, 
are under the ban. And no Roman catholic dare, under pain of purgatory, open a 
single volume in a Protestant's whole library of our most approved writers. 

This is a point but little known, and by the Romish priests usually concealed from 
Protestants; and most stoutly denied by the most of them! But you. Fathers, know 
how true this is. 

Even in our enlightened day,— and in our city, no priest dares, without a writtenfper- 
mission from his bishop, look into a book written by a heretic, — that is, a Protestant! 
If the bishop allows any one to do it without this license, he breaks his solemn oatli, 
and violates the law of Rome laid down in the Index! No man in your communion 
dares to think for himself, or even use his own conscience, without priestly permission 
and dictation. Then, what blunders in science, has Infullihility fallen into ! In settling 
the place of purgatory, for instance, we have seen that pope Gregory, the saint, and 
Bellarmine, and even Dr. Rosaccio placed hell, and purgatory in the earth's centre; 
at a distance of 18300 1-2 miles below the surface. This has never been corrected ; 
nor even apologized for ! Infallibility, right or wrong, can never correct itself! 

It is very well known that the famous Gahlco was formaih^ condemned and 
punished, simply for daring to invade the Romish darkness, by teaching that the earth 
13 a sphere, turning on its axis, and moving round the sun. Here I shall present, an 
extract from the sentence of the Inquisition of Rome, in 1633, acting under the eye of 
pope Urban, "the infallible vicar of God." " Whereas, you Galileo, aged 70 years, 
were denounced, — tor holding as true, n. false doctrine taught by many, that the sun 
is immovable in the centre of the world, and that the earth luoves; therefore, this 
holy tribunal, desirous of providing against the disorder, and mischief, proceeding and 
increasing, to the detriment of the holy frith, — by the desire of his holiness, the 
two pro))ositions, are qualified by the theological qualifers, as follows: — 

1st. The proposition that the sun is the centre of the world, aod imniovablo from 
its place, is absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical ; because e\])ressly 
contrary to the holy scr)i)tures. 2d. The proposition that the oarih is not the centre 
of the world, nor im^movable ; but that it nioves, and also has a diurnal motion, is 

27 



S02 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST, 

also absurd, philosophically false, and theologically considered, at least, erroneous i* 
faith," See The Life of Gahleo, published at Boston, 1832, pp. 179, 180. 

Such was the decision of pope Urban, " the infallible heacV of the church, and 
his lord cardinals, and doctors! And this was as late as 1633! Pope Zachary had, 
indeed, pronounced his " infallible" ban against Virgil, a Bavarian bishop, for pre- 
suming to teach the shocking heresy, that "there are men living on the opposite sid& 
of the earth, from us." " If he persist in the heresy," says he to his legate, "strip 
him of his priesthood : and drive him from the church, and altars of God!" See 
Life of Galileo, p. 192. But, then, this "infallible pope" pronounced the curse 
against Virgil, and his antipodes in the middle of the eighth century, when there 
were no heretics to pour light upon the eyes of popes and infallihles! There can be 
no excuse, therefore, for the ghostly judges of Galileo, but the invincible and incur- 
able depravity of popery. And, unless you also be under its influence, you will 
excuse the honest warmth of the bosom friend of Galileo, namely Micanzio, who 
exclaimed of pope Urban, and the other tyrants who condemned Galileo,— "I shall 
devote these unnatural, and godless hypocrites, to a hundred thousand devils !" 

It is right here to remark, that this doctrine, and these sentences of pope Zachary, 
and Urban, against bishop Virgil, and Galileo, stand unrepealed by pope, bishop, or 
doctor, to this day, in the Romish church. Hence you, and the pope, and all your 
priests sustain it, and avouch it, as much as Zachary, and Urban did. For no way 
has yet been invented to correct one infallible, by another infallible ! 

Hence, upon the whole, as the light of science, and as the influence of virtue, and 
true religion, are spread over the regenerated nations : and as knowledge, like the 
rays of the dazzling and glorious sun, gains an irresistible ascendency over the whol» 
world, popery, as a system, — the enemy of God's glorj^ and of man's hajxpiness 
must necessarily fall; — and fall, to rise no more ! And your Reverences will, no 
doubt, unite with me in saying, — Amen, and amen ! 

I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



LETTER XXIX. 



TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 

On the internal symptoms of decay, and certain ruin, in Popery. 

" So I went into the chambers of imagery and saw ; and beheld every form of creeping 
things; and abominable beasts; and all tiie idols of the house of Israel; pourtrayed upora 
the wall, round about." — Ezek. viii. 

Reverend Fathers: — I have had the honor of drawing your attention to a few ©f 
the more striking symptoms of decay and certain ruin in popery. I beg leave to spe- 
cify B. fourth one, vividly displayed in your religious use of Relics. You believe ia 
their divine efficacy; you worship them; you maintain a brisk and lucrative traffic in 
them. 

Now, when truth and sound philosophy^ in their irresistible progress, shall opem 
die eyes of the blind, the contempt and abhorrence of all men will be poured upon 
this system of imposture. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 303 

One naturally feels astonished that a system of darkness, emerging from the Dark 
Ages, should find a moment's rest for the soJes of its feet, amid the flood of light poured 
out on the present age. We alluded before to the influence of astronomy and geogra- 
phy putting to flight the systems of paganism founded in principles of the darkest 
ages. Can a child, initiated into these sciences, ever be seduced to believe in a reh- 
gious system that the world is .a flat body, and rests on the back of a huge turtle/ 
Can a child believe the gravely related Romish doctrines, in many instances as su- 
premely absurd as this. Pope Gregory the Great and saint, places hell and his pur- 
gatory in the hollow centre of the earth! Cardinal Bellarmine advocates the same 
theory. Gregory adduces the spouting flames of ^tna and Vesuvius in proof of this, 
for these come from hell and purgatory ! There is, to be sure, one redeeming truth 
in this theory; he placed the opening into these infernal regions in a correct latitude; 
that is to say,— in his own immediate vicinity, — the seat of " the Beast." 

Dr. Rosaccio improves on this theory, and fills up the measure of its glory. H® 
also makes a hell and a purgatory in the earth's centre. But let our infant scholars 
mark the Romish geography. He makes purgatory exactly 2550 1-2 miles below 
the earth's surface ; and 15,750 above hell. By adding these, Ave find that the popish 
doctors make it exact!}' 18,300 1-2 miles to the central cavity of the earth: whereas 
the earth is only 8000 miles from pole to pole, through the centre ! I refer to Bellar- 
mine, De Purg. Lib. ii. cap. 6. in Tom. i. viihi, p p. 1928 &c. And Edgar, p. 536. 
Yet all this is rational and sublime, in comparison with the priests' world of Re- 
tics, set forth on the altar, and around the chapel, and in their variegated chambers 
of imagery ! 

And, then, such Relics ! And held up, too, for ike religious worshij) and homage 
of human beings! Why, they would absolutely derange the gravity of our protestant 
ehildren ! Let us notice a fev/ of them which garnish and consecrate your sanctua- 
ries ; and, thence, draw in large revenues to your "Immaculate Mother" in Europe. 
I shall not rehearse the wondrous bits of wood of the cross ; and the four nails, by 
which our Savior was nailed to the cross. Like the four heads of John the Baptist, 
in France, there are several duplicates of these four identical nails! You have 'Mhe 
parings of St. Edmunds's toes," and several chapels have some of the coals which 
roasted St. Laurence ! Among the Glastonbury relics, you show us the identical 
atones which the devil tempted our Lord to turn into bread ! In France, Spain, and 
Flanders, they have eight arms of St. Matthew ! Of course antiquarians must bless 
you for the amazing discovery that he had 40 fingers ! And the author of one list of 
relics, in the possession of the late Mr. McGavin, declares that he had seen three 
arms of St. Luke. In the Lateran church in Rome, they show the very Ark of the 
Lord, made by Moses ; anil the rod with which he did his miracles ! In the sam« 
church, they have the entire table on which our Lord eat the first Supper. And in 
Spain, and in Flanders, they have genuine fragments of the table! In the same 
ohurch they have the entire heads of St. Peter and St. Paul. And in Bilboa, there is 
a large part of Peter's skull, in the ])ossession of the Augustines; and a large frag^ 
ment of Paul's skull, in the convent of the Franciscans! In St. Peter's church at 
Burgos, they have the cress of the good thief: ^^someivhat tvorm eaten :'^ with Judas' 
lantern; and the very dice which the soldiers used in casting lots for our Lord's gar- 
ments! They show also the tail of Balaam's ass! In the same ])lace, they have a 
little of the manna In the wilderness; and a few blossoms of Aaron's rod! They 
have relics of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and also the Virgin's comb; and a comb 



304 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROTERST. 

of each of the 12 Apostles, ^^ nearly as good as fiew!^^ They have a part of St' 
Mark's body; with an arm, and a finger of St. Ann, the Virgin's mother. The cata- 
logue, also, shows the Virgin's identical veil ; and St. Patrick's staff, with which he 
expelled the toads and vipers from Ireland! They have, also, what is very appro- 
priate in a den of traitors, a bit of the rope with which Judas hanged himself! There 
is, also, some of the Virgin's hair; with several vials of her milk. And what is a 
rare and devotional thing, they show a little hitter, and a bit of cheese (very rare,^) 
made out of her milk, which never decays ! ! ! See Philos. Library for 1818; and 
Glasgow Prot. chap. 52. 

In the Cathedral of Glasgow, they had a choice museum of these adored relics. 
For instance, they had a bit of St. Bartholomew's skin : and the Virgin's girdle : and 
a bone of St^ Magdalene: with four vials of the Virgin's milk ! Also a vial of St. 
Kentigern's blood; and a bit of the manger where our Lord lay; and St. Blartin's 
cloak, ^^ rather moth eaten.''' See Beauties of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 217; Glasgow 
Prot. ch. 53. 

In 1633, Pope Alexander VII. sent into France, three chests of holy relics for 
*' Kosphal Church." They were bound with silk cords, and sealed with Cardinal 
Ginetti's seal. On the apening of the relics, with much pomp and devotion, there 
was found in the third chest, the head of St. Fortunatus. There nnfortunately hap- 
pened to be present a medical gentleman, who, with a heretical eye, perceived a bit 
of 'painted cloth above the ear. This led him to examine the skull; he scraped if, 
and pierced it v/ith his knife. And lo ! the holy relic, pronounced to be the true skull 
of the saint, by your infallible head himself, turned out to be a piece of pasteboard! 
See Archbp. Tenison*s Reph/ to Mr. Pulton, p. 72. Edit. 1687. 

Now, if ever there was a thing called a lusus nature, verily, here is one ! And it 
will be duly and gratefully chronieied by the Antiquarian Society ! And I call the 
attention of our amateurs to it, not merely in its physical, but in its moral bearing. 
We have here pontifcal authority, from the chair of St. Peter, that a man can, in the 
most perfect manner, fulfil the holy functions of a Roman priest; and be a Roman 
saint, — and yet, after all, have only a pasteboard skull, and hrains to correspond ! 

There was a famous crucifix at Bexley, in Kent, Old England. Its eyes, lips, and 
head moved graciously, at the approach of its votaries, to pay their adoration to it, 
«ad "the holy relics. At the Reformation, says Hume, the bishop of Rochester 
broke oflfits head, and showed to the people ils springs and wheel?, by which it was 
moved. Henry III., king of England, used to sport a rare and precious relic — -no less 
than a vial of your Lord^s blood, sent to him from Jerusalem. He used to show it 
devoutly to all the great men of his court! King Canute very devoutly paid the 
priests one hrmdred talents of silver, and one of gold, for the old black withered arm 
of St. Augustine. M.y authors do not inform me what these honest traflftckers in hu- 
man limbs, charged the kings of France, and Spain, and Najjles, for similar arms of 
that African father! In the Lateran church at Rome are "some planks of the cove- 
nant;" in St. Paul's, are PauPs body, and such a number of vials of holy bloody 
hung round the walls, that a stranger is apt to think he has got, by some mistake, into 
an apothecary's shop ! Here is, also, the very pillars on which the cock crew, when 
Peter denied our Lord ! See Owen*s Travels, vol. ii. p. 52. In another church, is 
shown the comb of the said cock, that set Peter a weeping. In Paris, at St. Denys, 
they show a real likeness of the queen of Sheba ; with Solomon^s drinking cup ; and 
Judas' brass lantern, full of chrystals. Here is, also, the linen with which Chiist 



ROMAN CATHOLIC COKTUOTIRST. 305 

wiped the disciple's feet ; with a bit of the water pots of Cana ! See Evelyn's, Me- 
moirs. In St. Basil's Chapel, at Bruges, Campbell, [Journey^ p. 39, quarto,) saw 
the sponge full of blood which Joseph of Arimathea wiped off our Savior! At 
Aix la Chapelle, he saw the very chemise of the Virgin; the cord that bound Christ, 
and some of St. Stephen's blood nicely preserved in a bit of earth, on which it 
dropped! In the Cathedral of Munster, Mrs. Piozzi saw the very sword which St. 
Paul ivore ! And behind the high altar, is a hachgammon table, which belonged to 
John the Baptist, or, as the keeper said, "to some baptist!'''' In Upsal they have 
Judas' bag, and one of the thirty pieces of silver; with the identical pair oi red slip- 
pers, in which the Virgin paid a visit to her cousin ! See Wraxall's Northern tour, 
p, 127. In the church of Durham, they showed the teeth, and the head of St. 
Aiden ; and what is a very rare matter, two eggs of the griffin! See Smith's Beda, 
Append. No. 15. 

And, to crown the climax, I shall give an extract from Stephen's Traite preparatif 
a VApologie pour Herodote, chap. 39. He relates that a monk of St. Anthony saw 
"a bit of the finger of the Holy Spirit, quite sound ;" also the nose of the angel that 
appeared to St, Francis ; and "a finger nail of a cherub !" There were, moreover, 
*'arib of the ivord made flesh !^' and a feather of the angel Gabriel! And, besides 
the vial of St. Joseph's breath, caught by an an(|"el, as he was cleaving wood, — ther« 
is " a hem of his garment." Another scarce relic is this, — " a quantity of the iden- 
tical rays of the star which led the wise men to our infant Savior !" There are also 
the identical square buckler, and the identical steel sword of St. Michael, which he 
employed in his' battle with the devil ; together with a vial of his sweat, which he, 
the angel, sweated on that occasion ! " All these have I devoutly brought home with 
me,"— -added the monk. See the Clavis Calendaria, vol. ii. p. 56, &c. ; and tha 
Recreat. Magaz. Bost. Edit., p. 384, 386. 

I hold up this system before the eyes of the American people. Behold, fellow citi- 
zens, a system of unparalleled knavery, which blushes not to palm these lying wonders 
on the ignorant part of our community, even as if the reign of the Dark Ages had not 
yet passed away ! Here is a system, which, worse than paganism in Greece and 
Rome, holds up these solemn puerilities of gods and rotten bones, as objects of reli- 
gious worship in their chapels; which compels its victims in all catholic lands, — ye?, 
and in our own enlightened land, to fall on their knees, and worship these motley 
remnants of bones, and garments, and angels, and dust; and yield up their property 
to the immeasurable exactions of these ghostly traficers: which robs its votaries of 
their last shilling to sustain this villainous imposition, and throws them on the public 
charities of our country; and plunders them of even the pittance of supplies, yielded 
by pubhc charity, to eke out the imposture to the closing scene of their ruined vic- 
tims ! O merciful heaven ! can such a curse be permitted to scom-ge the human 
family forever! How long shall these deceptions, and lying wonders, and workings 
of- Satan, find a place among civilized men ! Not long, my fellow citizens. The 
rising light will chase away this darkness : these ludicrous, yet blasphemous absurdities 
are hastening, by irresisti[)le necessity, its irrecoverable downfall ! And from all 
lands, the joyful signal will be uitcred: Babylon is fallen, — is fallen ! 

I am,- Rev. Fathers, yours, «5cc. 
W. C. B, 
27* 



306 ROMAN CATHOLIC COITTROTEIIST. 



LETTER XXX. 

TO THE LORD ARCHSISHOP, A>'D THE LORDS BISHOPS, OF THE R0MA:!V CATHOLIC 
CHURCH, I>' THE UNITED STATES. 

Popery essentially despotic : and incompatible with the free institutions of our repuhlic^ 

'• Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes ! 
O Teucri, ne creclite equo !"' 

I have my mcdves, Reverend Fathers, in spreading out all your "■solemji lilies," 
before, our plain republican citizens. \ our titles indicate the genius of j^our hierarchy ; 
that lordly and absolute despotism, which has rested^ as a horrid incubm, on the 
breast of sleeping Europe, for so many centuries : and which yuu are seeking to press 
on the bosom of our republic ! 

I disclaim all personal reflections, and even allusions. Indeed, Reverend Fathers, 
both you, and yonr head the pope, we deem too humble, and too little known among 
us, to be the subject of any personal reflections, in the presence of the people of this 
great republic. Without bating one jot of your consequence, which you borrow and 
import from Rome, the whole of your hierarchy and priesthood in our republic, are, 
ia fact,-asthe fiy on the horn of the noble bull, mentioned in the fable. You can do 
no lasting naischief, were our fellow citizens only awake, to the inesnmable value or 
their civil and religious liberties. Our only dangers are these : — the lethargy of our 
republic, and the unwearied efforts of foreign Roman catholic, and despotic powrers, 
to invade us, and corrupt the" fountain of public opinion. Disclosures have been 
made, which establish the, fact, that an extensive conspiracy is formed by the des- 
pots of EviTope, to make a dangerous attack on our free institutions. This they are 
<loiug under the garb of the old and only religion, called Rcn\an Catholicism. They 
dare not send in among us, their political emissaries, under the name of "politicians'* 
to teach us, and our children, their Romish policies, and despotism! This would be 
too barefaced. It would ruin their cause sooner, than if •' Satan transformed into an 
angel of light," did shove the cloven foot and horns, out from beneath his ill adjusted 
robe, and mask 1 But, all the world knows thai the order of Jesuits "was revived in 
1814, by pope Pius TIL, for the express purpose of gaining ghostly power in Europe ; 
and especialh' to gain over the United States. And latterly, the Roman catholic 
princes of Europe have entered deeply, and zealously into the enterprise. These, it 
is true, care little for the pope, and far less for his system of inventions, which he is 
pleased, facetiously, to call tht christian religion! The truth is, that as men, enter- 
taining their own private opinions, neither pope, nor the Roman catholic princes, in 
Europe, ever gravely affected to believe in the system of the Romish religion. 
Vievv-ed strictly as a regular system of priestcraft and tyranny, it is a wretched substi- 
tute for Christianity, and to it, strictly speaking, as such, is applicable all that Voltaire 
and Hume wrote. In their ignorance of the holy Bible, they mistook popery for 
CHRiSTiA>'iTT. So docs the pope ; so do his ghostly court ; so do the despotic princes 
of Europe. 

But, nevertheless, this system, — a compound of absurdities, pomp, and puerility', 
as it is, — his been an adinirable tool in t3'rants' hands. It amuses lounging cour- 
tiers and sinecure professors, and keeps them out of political plots : it edifies the weak 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



30 7 



aalnded; and feeds the pious ignorance of fanatics: it lodges unlimited power with 
priests and tyranis. And, then, it frowns on no damning crimes ; it allows men to serve 
the devil, the world, and the flesh, to their heart's content, as long as they live ; and , 
then, for a small consideration,— ~(ihey cannot take their money with them at any 
rate,) it shrieves these children of the devil, and gives them a passport to glory. 
Moreover, it fills the coffers of bishops, and monks, who have made vows of poverty : 
it feeds an army of twenty millions of priests and monks, who are ready, at an hour's 
w'arning, to march to the onset against knowledge and liberty, even to the ends of the 
earth ! And, finally, it strikes a very salutary terror into the trodden down populace, 
which loves iniquity, and fears the flames of purgatory, which are sold by the 
priests ! 

It is, therefore, consummately adapted to create, and sustain despotism, on the 
largest scale. In the pursuit of his object, the pope has never ceased to add as proper 
instruments, the power, and influence of Roman catholic sovereigns, to that of his 
army of ghostly militia, the cardinals, bishops, monks, and priests. And these Roman 
eatholic princes, v/ho relieve their grave, filial obedience, by fits of the merriest 
mockery of him, and all his army of " 5/fat;e/mg-s ;" and send him, and them, daily, 
*'tothe devil," — over their cups,— do in their turn employ him, his bishops, and 
priests, as their political minions, to crush, still deeper, their wretched, and plundered 
tubjects; and to prevent the progress of light, and knowledge among them; that their 
bondage may be perpetuated ; and, finally, to overturn every free government under 
heaven ! 

There is nothing to which these despots of Europe look with more uneasiness, and 
real pain, than to the progress of liberty, and the establishment of self government 
on our continent. Especially is our Republic the object of their unmitigated and un- 
aabducible hatred. I do not say that the people, their sabjests, do so view us. They 
adniire, or envy us. But the princes, and tyrants who have pat tke screws on their 
people in church establishments, and in state usurpations, do viev\^ our republic with 
immeasurable vexation and hatred. Hence the present conspiracy ; and combined 
efforts to execute that conspiracy, by these European despots. And the Jesuits, — 
"who have convulsed every nation and government in Europe, they have, as 
the last resort, selected as the means to accomplish our ruin. And every man, in 
our Union, who has eyes to see, and has looked steadily on, for a few years past, has 
perceived that an army of Jesuits are at work over the land. The effort now made, 
— ^and I implore my fellow citizens to mark it, and watch the progress; — the untiring 
effort, and aim of these foreign emissaries, of European despots, are to get the educa- 
tion of our children., and young people, male and female, into their own hands! And 
all those unhappy victims whom they can obtain, they send home, — verily igno- 
rant enough of the usual ornamental, and useful branches, — but, then, their o??f, 
only grand aim is achieved. They send theirt home into the bosoms of their families, 
unblushing, irreligious, bigoted Roman cathohcs! This, as you know, Rev. Fathers, 
is the plan adopted in the conspiracy against our free institutions. The foreign des- 
pots know that it is vain to attack us with armies, and navies : that political vmii^iiuncs 
and writings could find no place here. They attack us under the mask of religion ; 
the Jesuits are their soldiers; the De propaganda of Rome, and that of the south of 
France train their soldiers : the despots, and the " Leopold foundation," at Vienna, 
furnish the money. Every son of his holiness is taxed to support the emissaries in 
our land. They arc ''teachers of religion."'' Yes; but they cease not to teach ia 



308 HOMAIf CATHOLIC CONTROTKRSr. 

their religion, the sentiments of the Holy Alliance ! ^hey are " teachers of religion /" 
Yes : but they instil into their pupils, despotic principles ! They are " teachers of reli- 
gion" ! O, yes! But at the confessional they utter execrations against liberty and 
republics ' They applaud monarchy ; and popery, and absolutism ! They are 
?eac/iers of religion. " Yes! and that religion dooms all /terc^tca/ governments: and 
teaches that no heretic has a right to rule : or even hold property : that no Protestant 
heretic has a lawful heir, because no heretic is legally married, according to the papal 
law! They are '■'- teachers o/ religion"! Yes! But in every nunnery, and in 
©very male seminary, it is their religion to hold up the pope as the legitimate master of 
all magistraies ; and his court, and platform of rule, as the only model of perfection 
in the art of government! No politics, no political emissary, — no armed bands can 
be more fatal to our countr5s than these *' teachers of religion'''' ! And their very 
jealousy, and eternal outcry of '^religious 'persecution,''' when we expose iheir conspi- 
racy against our unsuspecting people, is to me, a manifest demonstration that their 
whole system is a political conspiracy. The teachers of pure Christianity court pub- 
licity : they mov» in light, and triumph by the force of truth. But those "religious" 
eonspiralors " creep into houses ;" and move in darkness, and fear nothing more than 
light and publicity ! 

I beg leave to lay down, emphatically, before the public, this doctrine : — 

Popery is esseniially despotic, and utterly incompatible with the free institutions of 
our Republic. 

Here, I have to combat the prejudices, and ignorance of superficial men, who 
maintain that popery is so altered, and so modified, and reformed, from what it used 
to be, in the Dark Ages, that it can do little, or no harm. Reverend Fathers, no on« 
knows better than you do, that these ages were created Dark Ages by the plastic power 
of popery ! And if she could have crushed the influence of the Bible ; and quenched 
the light of truth, and science, we should have been in the Dark Ages still. Modern 
iight and improvement bring no improvement to her. One fact is enough to show 
this:— Popery claims absolute supremacy for her .pope, and infallibility! Hence, 
she declares "sAe never errs!''' She can never alter one decree; nor revoke one 
false step: nor abate one evil that ever existed in her. You affect to compliment her 
by calling her improved and reformed ! Were you in Spain, you should receive for 
jour compliment a. corps du gard, to escort you to a cell in the dungeon of the bishop, 
—the inquisitor, in his own diocese ! You ought to know that you offer Rome the 
greatest insult, v/hich in her estimation, you can contrive to ofiCer her in this land :— 
by all edging that she is in any respect altered: for, in doing this, 3'ou take away the 
largest and brightest oem from her crown. You take away her infallibility and 
supremacy. 

The fact is this : — Popery is altered so far, that she puts on the mask, and a false 
garb. For she feels that she is in an enemy's land. She suits herself in appear- 
ance, to the decent appearcince of Protestants. But, as you know, Fathers, the 
moment you can get the power, you will forthwith revive old Irish, Spanish, Italian, 
and Austrian times. All our cities will gleam with the Auto da Fe! 

I need not appeal, here, to what has been done by popes and councils of old. The 
pope claims, to this day, absolute and undoubted supremacy as a temporal and 
spiritual prince, over all persons, and their property : and over all countries, as well 
Mohammedan, as Protestant, and catholic and pagan. Has any one forgotten that 
iie pope claimed, and still claims the giving away of newly discoTcred lands, to his. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 309 

favorite princes? Prom the begianing of the eighth century, the pope clainaed this 
power in Spain. It is true, Dr. Geddes has estabUshed the fact, beyond all Romish 
gainsaying, thai the pope's supremacy was not owned, nor even known in Spain, 
until ab©ut the close of the seventh century. But early in the eighth, the pope threat- 
ened liing Witiza, for allowing and authorizing the priests to marry, that if he per- 
sisted, he should lose his kingdom. See Dr. M. Geddes' works against popery, vol. 
ii. p. 29. It is true, king Witiza of Spain, denounced the pope ; and assembled the 
great council of Toledo, in A. D. 704; which declared and decreed that, — "the 
bishops of Rome had no authority in Spain, either in church, or in state.'''' See Ged- 
des ii. p. 31. Yet the pope set up claims to that realm : letters of pope Gregory vii. 
were produced out of the Vatican Library, addressed to all princes who were willing 
to invade the moors of Spain, and drive them out. In these Letters, this spiritual 
despot published his solemn grant to all princes, who should conquer the Moors, 
" that they should have, and hold from him, the pope, the use of all the countries in 
Spain, wliicli they should conquer from these Moors. But," adds he, — '•'■the property 
of these countries, he could not part with, or give it to ihem : because it belonged to 
St. Peter ; and the See of Rome /" Geddes ii. p. 30. 

The pope's spiritual supremacy was,- in defiance of the great but unsuccessful 
struggles of all good men, fully established in the most of the countries of Europe, 
about the beginning of the seventh century: and his temporal power and supremac}^ 
about the year 756. Through the influence of that infamous traitor and usurper, 
Pepin, this was effected. By him was pope Stephen ii. made Exarchate of Ravenna. 
By insatiable ambition and lust of power, the popes continued to make constant acces- 
isions to their domains, and revenues. Charlemagne made very great and important 
additions to the gift of his father Pepin. This monarch, bigotled and superstitiouB, 
helped on the Romish power towards its height. He was the first emperor that was 
crowned by the pope. Give tyranny, especially ghostly tyranny, the least degree of 
unlawful power, and its thirst becomes burning and insatiable for more. From this 
time, the popes actually assumed the right of crowning kings : and, thence, they set 
up the claims of conferring the crown ; and with it, the right of conferring the 
sovereignty of the empire. For, what was the crown "without the holy pope's bene- 
diction." From that time the popes claimed absolute sovereignty over all kings, and 
magistrates, from the lowest to the most exalted in all lands! 

Such is tiie origin of papal supremacy. Nothing less than a traitor and a mur- 
derer of Ilia royal master, and the usurper of his throne, could have conceived it; and 
his bloody son consummated it! From that time, the illicit union of the spiritua} 
and the temporal power, by a frightful amalgamation, gave birth to the papal Beast, 
as foreseen in the visions of St. John ! 

I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &c. 



310 ROMAN CATHOLIC CUXTKOVLRSY. 



LETTER XXXI. 



TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, A>'D THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
CHURCH, 15^ THJE UZS^ITED STATES. 

Popery essentially despotic: and incompatible with our free institutions. 

" Per vavios casus, per tot discrimina rerum, 
Tendimus in Latium!" Virg. 

Reverend Fathers: — Through you, I earnesth' beg the attention of my fellow 
citizens, to the open and avowed doctrine of the Romish church on this point. These 
papal claims are laid down by popes and councils; and they are viewed, and acted 
on, as " t/ie e55en/faZ doctrine of Christianity." And these claims of ths pope, his 
bishops, and priests extend to our republic, to our president, and congress, and gov- 
ernors, and all the magistracy as fully, and as entirely, in their undimiuislied pre- 
tensions, as unto any Roman catholic power in Europe. I implore my fellow citi- 
zens not CO be imposed on by the Jesuitism of the men who pretend that " they do 
aotovvm the pope as a temporal prince." Ther© is not a Roman catholic in Europe. 
or in the United States, vho does not fully believe that the pope has just as absolute a 
right, and supremacy orer Protestant Holland, and Protestant Britain, and over our 
Protestant Republic, and over all our bodies, and eur souls, and our real, and personal 
property,- — as h% has over Spain, or Italy itself! This is the solemn faith of every 
Roman catholic, as it is laid down in his books; and taught him daily. And you 
know, Fathers, that papists could not expect to bs saved, if they did not believe this. 
It is true, they refuse to admit it: they even deny it. But this, you know, is denied 
only before Protestants, and in all Protestant lands. The}- would be guilty of a 
mortal sin if they did not believe that which the^- thus deny! I shall produce from 
your own books, 3'our authentic doctrines on this point ; and we ghsll then see how 
atrocious and dajagerous they are. 

"The pope,"— says the council which had Gregory YII. at its head. — "ought to 
be called the universal bishop : he alone oug^t to wear the token of imperial dignity : 
all princes ought to kiss his feet: he has power to depose emperors and kings, and is 
to be judged by no man." Pope Innocent III. proclaimed himself thus to th« 
world : — "The church my spouse, is not married to me without bringing me som«- 
thing. She hath given me a dowery of a price, beyond all price : the plenitude of 
spiritual things ; and the extent of temporal things : the mitre for the priesthood : 
and the crown for the kingdom; making me the lieutenant of Him who has it written 
&n his thigh, " King of kings, and Lord of lords:" to enjoy the plenitude of power, 
that others may say of m.e next to God, — "out of his fulness have we received." 

To deny this unbounded temporal power, was deemed by the pope the greatest 
heresy in the kings of Europe. Every one has read of the troubles and degradation 
to which King John of England; and Henry II. of England, in the affair of the 
Tillainous and treason working knare, Saint Thomas A Becket, were subjected, by 
thi« usurped power of the pope. Every student of history is famihar with the 
power claimed by the two popes who excoramuuicatad King Henry YIII. ; and by 
pope Pius VI. who put Queen Elizabeth under his ban, and called, authoritatively, 
upon ah her subjects, as his subjects, to rise up in rebellion against her, "whom he. 



ROMAN CATJOLIC COJTTROVERST. 3lJ 

by virtue of power from God, had judged and damned," — yes, damned! For he 
affected to be "Lord, and God," of both worlds, and judge of the bodies and soul« 
of all men ! 

When King Philip of France, showed a disposition to slight the pope's power, the 
pope thus addressed him in his Bull, — " We would have you to know, that you, 
king of France, are subject to us, both in things spiritual and temporal: and we pro- 
nounce all those who believe the contrary, to be heretics !^^ On another occasion, 
addressing the same monarch, the pope said,-— "Do not imagine that you have no 
superior : or, that you are not in subjection to the Head of the ecclesiastical hierarchy , — 
he that maintains this is an infidel !" 

And this has been practically played off by way of a comment, and a lesson t© 
kings, and magistrates. A king of England, and a king of France, were compelled 
to hold the pope's stirrup, and act as his groom's man. An emperor of Germany 
laid his neck at the pope's feet: and the pope, in lordly pride, put his heel on hie 
prostrate neck, as he blasphemously repeated the sacred text;—" Thou shalt tread 
laponthe serpent, and trample on the dragon, and lion I" Henry IV., the emperor, 
did penance before the pope's gate at Canusium: three days did he stand there, 
barefooted; bare headed, and in a wretched woollen cloth wrapped round him. On 
the fourth day, the haughty despot deigned to give him an audience; and he promised 
him absolution, on condition of his submitting to the dictates of »a council, to be call- 
ed by the pope. That council, at the nod of this pope, — I mean Gregory VII., deposed 
him; and chose a new emperor; to whom the pope sent a crown bearing this motto :- — 
"Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodolpho." " The Rock gave the crown lo 
Peter, and Peter gave it to Rodolphus!" 

This supremacy of the pope, " over all persons, and things," says Bellarmine, 
"is THE MAIN SUBSTANCE OF CHRISTIANITY!" Hcuce tlic following doctrincs of th« 
Roman catholic church, which I submit to every citizen of this republic. Cardinal 
Pol us, De Concil. 41. says, — " Petri cathedram, &c. The chair of St. Peter, Christ 
has constituted, above all imperial thrones ; and all regal tribunals!" 

Blasius, De Rom. Eccles. Dignitate, Tract 7, pp. 34. 83. 85, says, — "UnicusDei 
ricarius, ik,c. The Roman Pontiff is the only vicar of God : — the pope's power is 
orer all the world, 'pagan., as well as christian: the only vicar of God, who has su- 
preme power, and empire over all kings, and princes of the earth ! As there is on« 
God, the monarch of all, who presides and rules over all mortals; so there is oiu 
vicar of God ; kings ought to be under Peter : and must bow down and submit their 
necks to him, and his successors ; who is prince, and lord of all, Avhom all emperors, 
and kings, and potentates, are subject to ; and must humbly obey." 

Pope Boniface VIII. proclaims in the Extravagantes, (the extravagantes are th« 
decretals of popes, and councils, and of the civil powers,) — " Omnes Christi, «fcc. It 
is necessary to salration that all christians be subject to the pope /" 

Bzovius, De Rom. Pontif. Col. Agripp. cap. i. 3. 16. 32. 45. teaches thus : "Papa 
est, &c. The pope is the monarch of all christians; supreme over all mortals: 
from him lies no appeal. He is judge in heaven; and in all earthly jurisdiction, 
iupreme: he is the arbiter of the world." 

Mancinus, De Jur. Princip. Rom. Lib. 3. cap. i. 2. "Papa est, &c. The jKjpe 
is Lord of the whole world. The i)ope, as ])ope has temporal jioAver : his temporal 
power is most eminent. All other ])owcrs dej)cnd on the ])ope." 

Moscovius, De.Majest. Eccles. Miiit. Lib. i. cap. 7, p. 2G, teaches the Romish doctrin* 



312 ROMAIf CATHOLIC C0NTR0VIR6T. 

fully and frankly : " Pontifex Romanus, ^c. The^Roman Pontiff is universal judge : 
king of kings, and lord of lords ; because his power is of God. God's tribunal and 
the pope's tribunal are the same ; they have the same consistory. All other powers are 
his subjects. The pope is judged of none but God." See also Pithou, Corp. Jur. 
Can. 29, Decret. Tit. 7, c. 3, also Gibert ii. 9. Bruy, ii. 100, and Labbeus, viii. 666, 
and Binii Concil. ix. 54. 

Sciopplus, in Eccles. Jacob. Mag. Brit. Reg. Oppos. cap. 138, 139, 241, says, — 
" Catholici non tantura, &lc. Catholics believe the pope's power to be not only 
ministerial, but imperial, and supreme; so that he has the right to direct, and compel, 
with the pov/-er of life, and of death." 

Maynardus, De Privil. Eccles. Art. 5, Sect. 19, &c. Art. 6, Sect. 1, &c. Art. 13, 
Sect. 19, says: "Emperors and kings are the pope's subjects. The pope has power 
in, the whole ivorld in temporals and spirituals. Statutes r.iade by laymen do not bind 
the clergy /" 

Simanca, in his Enchir. Judicum. Tit. 67. Sect. 12. p. 349, says, — "Heretic! 
privati sunt, &c. Heretics (Protestants) are deprived of all dominion, and jurisdic- 
tion; and their subjects are freed from their obedience." 

Emanuel Sa, Aphoris. Confes. Verb. Cleric, p. 41. thus teaches, — " Clerici rebellio, 
&c. The rebellion of a priest is not treason : because clergy are not the king's," 
(nor the republic's) '^subjects." 

Tarrecremata. Card, ad Can. Alius 3. Cans. 15. Quest. 6. and De Eccles. Lib. 
2. cap. 14, teaches thus : " Papa potest deponere, &c. The pope can depose empe- 
rors, and kings; he may lawfully absolve subjects from their oath of allegiance. If 
the king" (or President) "be manifestly a heretic," that is, a Protestant, — "the 
church may depose him," that is, from his office as a magistrate. 

Paul IF. the pope, in his Bull, A. D. 1558, thunders forth his anathema thus : — 
" J[ZZ Protestants, be they kings or subjects," — that is, be they Protestants, or Govern- 
ors, or Mayors, or Aldermen, — ''are all solemnly cursed.'' — And this Bull is a part of 
the canon law : see Lib. 7. Decret. Lib. 5. Tit. 3. De Hereticis, &c. cap. 9. 

And let magistrates look well to the character which the Romish church says, her 
priesthood occupy, in the Republic. They never can, without violating their solemn 
oath to the pope, take the oath of allegiance to our government; or become citizens. 
If they do, they are guilty of perjury before the pope! Nay, the Roman Council of 
the Lateran, under pope Innocent III. Can. 43, thus declares,—" Sacri auctoritate, 
&c. By the authority of the Holy Council, we declare it unlawful for secular prin- 
ces to require any oath of fidelity, and allegiance of their clergy; we peremptorily 
forbid all the priests from taking any such oath, if it be required." See Corpus Jur. 
Canonici. 

Again, in Corpus Jur. Can. cap. Sicut 27, Extrav. De Jurejurando, it is thus 
taught, — " Juramentum, &c. No oath against the benefit of the chureh is binding: 
all such oaths are perjuries." And Spottiswood in his History of Scotland, p. 308, 
says, — '■'If the pope dispense with voluntary oaths, it is valid." 

Filiucius, in his Moral Quest. Tract 16, cap. 11, sect. 307, 309, teaches that "by 
the canon law, and the decree of the Lateran Council, under pope Innocent III., all 
magistrates who interpose against ecclesiastical persons, in any criminal cause, 
whether it be even for murder, or even high treason, shall be excommunicated." 
And the Bull of pope Gregory ix. in 1580, declares thus: — "Judex secularis, &c. 
No secular judge may condemn a priest : and if he do ; he shall be excommuni- 



HOMAN CATHOLIC COKTROVE-RST. 313 

cated."" — Hence it is canonical doctrine of the Roman court that papal ecclesiastics 
'are not subject to the civil laws! 

This is easily carried out, in every priest ridden government. But how is it managed 
under a Protestant government ? I answer by facts, — when a priest commits a crime 
which lays him open to the lash of the law, — the bishop orders him cfFin an hour ; 
and before the legal officer is at his house, he is on board of some vessel under a 
borrowed name. We all know how often this occurs in our cities ! Remember priest 
Smith ! 

I conclude with a few more extracts. Bellarmine, Controv. Lib. 5, cap. 6, p. 
1098 says, — " the spiritual powers must rule the temporal by all sorts of means, and 
expedients, when necessary." "Christians,"— that means papists, — " should not tole- 
rate a heretic king," (or President.) 

Salraeron, Comment. Evan. Hist. Tom. iv. pars 3: Tract. 4, p. 411, thus teaches : 
*' The pope has supreme jjower over all the earth ; over all kings, and governments ; to 
command and enforce them &c. And if they resist him, he must punish them, as 
contumacious." 

Lessius, Lib. 2, cap. 42: Dub. 12: p. 632, teaches: — That " ^/le pope can annul 
and cancel every possible obligation arising from an oath.'^ So completely does the 
pope set all civil governments, and all courts at defiance. 

And, now, can any citizen, of the least reflection, deny that these essential doctrines 
of popery can never be compatible with the laws and institutions of our Republic? If 
the Jesuits do teach these doctrines, — as I do affirm before God and m3n, they do in 
their seminaries, they are deadly foes of our free government. If they dare oeny 
them, while they lie open in their standard books in our hands, then are they verily 
Jesuits, and knaves that will lieJ 

I am, Reverend Fathers, yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



LETTER XXXII. 



TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOilC 
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Popery Essentially Despotic ; and Incompatible with the Free Institutions of 

our Republic. 

Hoc volo; sic jubco; sit pro ralione voluntas ! 

Juvenal vi. 219. 

Reverend Fathers: — I beg that it may be distinctly known by you, and my 
fellow citizens, that all the above doctrines are extracted from the canons, and da- 
cretals published by Roman doctors, approved by iuquisiiors ; or enacted by councils, 
and sanctioned by popes. Hence they exhibit the immutabk' faith of I he. Roman caiholics. 

Now, let us glance at facts to show that, in this instance, popery is, if possible, even 
more intolerant in deeds than in theory. J. I'he Romish church has never i^leraled 
any church of Christ, where she had the jJOWcr. The Jew, tlic infidel, the Moham- 
medan, the christian have all been, alike the victims of her unsparing bigotry ! Sh('^ 
knows no other sect, — adniits of no sister cliurch : there is ?20 religion out oflior: 
KG salvation out of her: all are doomed to r icrnal perdition, not of her communion : 

2S 



^4 ROMA:? CATHOLH; GOXTROVERSy. 

This is not all ! she is a lordly tyrant, who permits- none to breathe, or live, or enjoy 
civil privileges, who differ from her,— wherever she has the ascendancy! Look at 
Spain, Austria, and Italy! None will she allow to die in peace, or receive even the 
last honors of sepulture, — or even, — if she can prevent it, — enter the gates of lieaven? 
who differ from her petty tyrants, the priests ! Her government, and all her habits 
of rale are not onl}' strictly monarchial, but despotic, — ahsolutdy decpotic, over soul, 
and body ! Witness the absolute slavery of the lay people, to the imperious priest I 
In Ireland, the priest exercises his lohip and jists, on his parishioners, as freely, and 
as cruelly as the slave driver does on his negroes. Then, mark the slaveiy of the 
crouching priest, to the bishop. He must, on his knees, kiss the lordly hand of the 
despot, before he mounts the pulpit, if he happens to be present. And then, the 
slavish prostration of soul and body, on the part of the bishop, to tbe "Lord his god 
the pope," is a disgrace. — a foul blot on God's image, — man! The bishops and 
priests live, and move, by the breath of the pope'ii hps ! They have no opinion, nor 
sentiment, nor religion, nor conscience, nor even soul of their own. It is all as the 
lordlv tyrant of Rome breathes it into them, even here, within the free air of our 
republic I 

2. The Romish church has ahcays united church end state. This is an essential 
element of her religion. 

And history reveals hov.- much her selfishness here rivals her impiety. In every 
instance of similar unhallowed connections, in Protestant lands, there is liie union of 
the church to the state; by which the latter uniformly makes a tool of tbe former; 
and the church always suffers. But, in lordly Rome, the church unites the state to 
herself, that in every instance, she may use its perfect subservieccy. Hence her 
unbounded arrogance. She sets up claims of pov/er over all kings, emperors, presi- 
dents, and governments. Hence the secret of her treatment of civil powers. All gov- 
ernments not of her religion, are pronounced, in her canons, heretical : and that 
means, in her court style, unlawful; and they must be put down, at all hazards: 
and every where, as soon as she reaches the power. Carrying out these maxims, 
and principles of action, as an absolute despot, she, of course, abhors and nauseates 
every form of government that favors the liberties of the people. She has an uncon- 
quera.ble horror of a republic. It is at perfect antipodes with everj" sentiment, and 
feeling of Rome. Her people must not think for themselves ; must not read : they 
liave no right to liberty of conscience : the press is muzzled : with her the liberty of 
the press is insupportable licentiousness. These maxims pervade the present pope's 
late encyclical Letter. Hence, no Romish priest can be a republican. He has no 
taste for it. Like the bear of the north, the Romish priest is an animal that can 
thrive only in the icy regions of despotism. He cannot be a republican, had he even 
a taste for it. He is a feud:il vassal : he would bring on his soul the mortal sin of 
perjury, if he became a lover of liberty. The pope has his whr.le soul, and his great 
oath : his ward, and even his civil oath are not to be credited in opposition to his papal 
intere&'s ! Facts confirm this- 

The one great, and unwavering object of papal ambition, has been pou'cr, and 
nniversal ascendency in all things, temporal and spirin;al. History- declares that no 
Roman catholic country has ever been a true republic. The priesthood of Rome 
have been monarchists of the most absolute character, from the pope down to the 
cure. 

Hence, we frankly avow, that we oppose your system of priestcraft not on account of 



ROMAN CATHOLIC OOlTTROVEllSY. 315 

your religion, merely as a religioiu Wg oppose you on this accoirnt, that popery is a 
despotism, breathing a deadly malignity against every form of religion, differing in 
any iota, from itself; and against all free, and especially, all republican institutions! 
I appeal to the history of Roman catholic countries in Europe, South America, and 
Mexico. The land of the Inquisition, and of priestcraft has ever been the tomb of 
liberty ! And the Roman catholic church has been the mother and nurse of th© 
Inquisition, and priestcraft. The moral atmosphere of Rome, worse than their own 
malaria, and worse than the deadly Samiel of the desert, breathes death to all liberty, 
civil and religious! 

3. Of all the specifications which might be made, there is one, to which I beg the 
earnest atte ntion of our citizens. It pourtrays the diabolical spirit of this ghostly 
despotism, in deepest hues. Every Protestant, and, indeed, every man not a Roman 
catholic, is denounced by the pope, and his foreign emissaries among us, as eicommu- 
nicated heretics ! And, what is worse, every person in these United States, who is 
not a Romanist, is annually excommunicated, and pronounced accursed, and doomed 
to perdition! This unchristian, and horrid ceremony of cursing all the American 
citizens, and government, is annually pronounced on Thursday, before Good Frida}^ 

It begins at Rome. On that day, the pope, in his scarlet vestments, the appropriate 
clothing of the "b'ood red, scarlet colored Beast of the apocalypse," utters in awful 
form, this infernal imprecation. And, in his name, in like manner, does every priest, 
in his own chapel, read this bull In ccena Domini, re-echoing the papal curse over 
the world ! They denounce ail our citizens; all our magistracy; our mayors; our 
aldermen; our governors; the president; and all the branches of our government! 
And this curse of their foreign master, includes the sentence of deposition from civil 
office; as being heretics, and having, of course, no right to rule ! And there are just 
two things which screen them, from popular indignation. They deny the charge of 
doing it, even while they are in the act of doing it: and it is done in Latin, which 
few understand. 

But the priests and their partizans gain their aim notwithstanding : they cherisli 
the secret spirit of hostility to our institutions ; and their subserviency to European 
despots ! 

And in case of a war, or insurrection, the whole army of priests, bishops, monks, 
and partizans are bound by your foreign allegiance, as you know. Fathers, — and by 
your great oafh, to rise in defence of the pope and his allies; and against our govern- 
ment ' If you do not, the guilt of perjury rests on you; and you, thence, forfeit 
your offices, and your revenues! No man, acquainted whh Romanism, and its des- 
potic vows, can imagine that a papist will permit his oath of allegiance to any heretical 
government, to supersede, in one instance, his vows, and oath to the pope. And this 
oath, bo it remembered, binds him as perfectly mcivil, as in spiritual matters. 

It is now understood by us all, that the course adopted by our Jesuits, and the 
priests in general, in reference to this Bull of annual damnation of heretics, is, — to 
deny it utterly; to deny that it is promulgcd by any of them. Hence the Jesuits 
have caused it to be published in The Catholic Herald, that it is never promulged by 
them; that 'Mhey have not even a copy of it;" "that it utters no curses on any 
one." I refer to the Protestant Vindicator, No. 12. I beg leave^ also, to notice a 
•mall book, lately published by one of you; I mean bishoj) England, entitled Ex- 
planation of the ceremonies of Holy Week, &c. ; but which is, merely, a childish,. 



516 



ROMAX CATHOLIC CO'TMOVZRST. 



and contemptible apolog}' for the theatrical mummery- of Rome, and its inlolerani 
dogmas. 

V> hen Dr. E. comes to the services of Maunday Thursday, he has the hardihood 
to deny that these vindictive curses on the human family, "are now gone through on 
the Thursday of holy week." It is now laid aside ; and has " not been gone through 
since the 5 ear 1740." See p. 69. 

I do not stop to inquire whether courtesy should compel one to sav that a person 
speaks the triith, when he actoally lies I But I cannot conceive it possible that our 
Jesuits, and also Dr. England aid net know that what they say on this matter, ia- 
positivelj" untrue and I'alse. 

I shall conduct them, and you, Fathers, directly to this yer\' Bull for evidence to 
sustain my strong assertions. "You do not promulge the Bull In coena Domini;^* 
jou saj^ Hear what your sovereign lord at Rome says : — Sect. 29, — "Ut processus 
ipsi &X:. That the processes themselves, and these present letters may be made mor& 
known, in virtue of canonical obedience, we do strictly charge and command all and 
singular, — that they publish them once annually or ofrener. if expedient, when the 
major part of the people are assembled."' 

'■You do not possess a copy of it, and therefore, y3u cannot pubhsh it," — you say^ 
in The Catholic Herald. 

\^Tiat an act of rebelhon against the pope, and the highest power in your church! 
Here are the words of the Bull, Sect. 25. •• Episcopi, nee non recrores &::c. Bishops,- 
aad rectors, snd curates, and presb\-ters of every order, shall have icith them a tran- 
script of this Bull, and shell diligently read and study to understand it/^ 

"It has not been gone through since 1740; but is now laid aside:" s^ys Dr. Eng- 
land. It is diificult to say whether we should pronounce this to be impudence, or 
reckless hardihood, or Jesuitism dyed in the wool. That he should have thus dared 
to utter this at Rome, and thus beard the lion in his den, — the pope in his very levee! 
Yes! and \snth the xerj Bull uttering his papal roars in his very ears, — is surpass- 
ing strange! The unblushing falsehood ought to be rebuked. I affirm that Dr. 
England knows perfectly well that this Bidl is ordered, by the highest authorhy of 
his church, to be annually promulgated. And in the teeth of his denial. I affirm that 
he knows well that it has been uttered since 1740. — Dr. E. is " a member of the 
Rom. Pont. Academy of ArchaeologV'." Now there is avolume, printed at Rome in 
A. D. 1764, entitled, — "Appendix ad Tusc. Synod, held by the Cardinal Duke of 
Y'ork. Bp. of Frescati, in 1763." Is it possible that this member of the Academj' 
has not seen that book, so well known in its library, and in the libraries at Rome ? 
I cannot persuade myseh'that Dr. E. is so absolutely ignorant. He must havs seen 
it. It is well known even in the libraries in Britain. At p. p. 575,. 576, of that book. 
Dr. E. must have =een the copy of the Bull //j. coena Domini, as uttered by pope 
Clement XIII., in the year 1764. I copy from the preamble,, now before me. The 
pope, stating that his predecessors on Maunday Thursday, did esercise such a spirit- 
ual sword of church discipline, adds: — "We, therefore, following this ancien^. and 
solemn custom, do Firstly, — Excommunicate, and curse on the part of Almighty' 
God, and the apostles, all heretics, &c." Then follow the designated %aetims of 
papal intolerance : he " curses" them from the eye brows to the toe nails; and theip 
souls, being damned by him, with the de\'il^ he adjudged into eternal fire: damnctum 
cum diaholo, — in igntin. c£ternum judicarnus." See also Lond^Prot. Jour. ApriL 1834- 
V. 230. 



EOIWAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERST. 317 

Farther — " This Bull In coena Domini,''' — you say, "does not curse Protestants, — 
does not interfere with Protestant governments." I beg the attention of the American 
community to an analysis of this famous Bull, which is annually pronounced against 
us. It opens thus: — "In the name of the Almighty God, Father,Son, and Holy 
Ghost, and by the authority of St. Peter and St. Paul, and by our own, — we excom- 
municate and pronounce accursed, all Hussites, Wickliffites, Lutherans, Calvinists, 
Huguonots, Anabapists, Trinitarians, and all apostates from the faith, and ail who 
keep, and read knowingly their books, &c. 

In section sixth, the pope utters his curse "on all civil powers who impose new 
taxes without the consent of the Roman court." 

In the 12Lh section he curses all who, in any w^ay, hurt or maltreat cardinals, 
bishops, and priests; or who drive them from their lands, territories, &c." Now, as 
the pope claims all lands, and gives them to his priests, this republic falls under the 
malediction of the pope, because, it does not establish the popish religion by a law ; 
and pay the tithes of the fruits of the land, as his just tribute! 

In the 15th secdon, he curses all magistrates, who "take away the jurisdiction of 
all benelices, and tithes; or other spiritual cause?, from the cognizance of the court of 
Rome." Hence, if any of our courts take up a cause of quarrel between the priests, 
or laymen, about monies due to " the church,''' or " any spiritual property'' instead of 
referring it simply and dutifully to the foreign despot, they come under the papal 
curse. 

In the 17th section, the sovereign master of all Roman catholics utters his curs© 
on all those who shall hinder priests, and ecclesiastics, from exerting their ghostly 
jurisdiction ; or w/io shall appeal to a civil court for redress, and "to procure prohibi- 
tions, and penal mandates against these priestly courts, &c. 

In the 18th section, he curses " all who take away the priests," and church's proper- 
ty." At the Reformation, the priests were made to disgorge their ill-gotten "goods and 
gear," which they had abstracted by fraud and imposture. For, demanding back 
their own, the protestant world has been put under the pope's weightiest ban. And 
every priest and layman, does really affect to believe, that for this thiug alone, — 
namely, for maldng these ghostly thieves and robbers refund what they had been, for 
ages, plundering off the nations, — every Protestant shall be doomed to hell! Nor, 
can we, of thiii republic, escape ! All the earth is the pope's property; and as he is 
entitled to the tithe of all its proceeds, — our not giving this to his representatives and 
foreign emisaaries, and spies, here among us, to wit, the holy bishops, vicars, and 
priests, — is a sin which will send us all, — magistrates and people, a packing into infal- 
lible and inevitable perdition. 

In the 19lh section, he curses " those who, without express license, from the Roman 
pontiff, impose taxes or tribute on Roman prelates, priests, monasteries, or churches, 
&c." Hare the curse reaches our government, and our legislature, if they shall ven- 
ture to tax pricfts, or priests' property, '''^ without express license of the pope.'* 

In the 20th section he utters the doom of judges and magistrates, who shall "sit in 
judgment on a bishop, priest, or ecclesiastic, with express license from the Holy Apos- 
tolical See !" 

In the 22d, (lie pope declares this Bull, and these sentences of doom binding forever, 
wnless revoked by the pope for the time being. In the 64, he utters his curse against 
)^i3hop or priest, who shall dare to give absolution to any one under these dooms, " in 

28*- 



31 9i ROarAW CATHOlilC CONTROVEHST. 

face of these presents ; and he declares that " he will proceed to severer s-piritmt, cnS 
temporal punishments, as he shall think most convenient." 

Lastly: — This extraordinary document is introduced with these words: "This 
Bull — is alwa3^s pronounced at Rome, and by all Roman priests, on Thursday be- 
fore Easter." It has received the sanction,, and addition from at least twenty popes. 
See Bullarium Magnum Romanum. And it is closed with the assurance, that "if any 
shall infringe on these letters, and this Bull, or oppose them, he shall certainly incur 
the wrath oi Almighty God, and of St. Peter and St. Paul. 

4. Additional hght is thrown on the nature of the Roman catholic subservi- 
ency to a foreign despotism, from the oath which chains the papal bishops and 
priesthood, as feudal vassals, to the foot of the pope's throne. It is recorded in 
Bulla Pii IV. : " Omnia a sacris, &c. All things defined by the canons, and general 
councils, and especially by the Synod of Trent, I undoubtedly receive, and profess : 
and all things contrary to them I reject, and curse, and from my dependents, and 
others under my care, as far possible, I will withhold. And the catholic faith I Avill 
teach, explain, and enforce upon them." 

This oath binds every priest to hold and enforce all these aforesaid doctrines, which 
we have recited ; and which are so essentially despotic ; and so utterly incompatible 
with our republican institutions. 

I subjoin the canonical oath which every prelate must take, at his consecration. 
It is copied from Pontif. Roman. Be consec. elect, in Episeop. p. 57. " Ego P. P. ab 
hac hora, &c. I from this hour will be faithful, and obedient to my Lord, the pope, 
and his successors" (and he is a temporal prince, as we have seen, as well as a spirit- 
■unl:) "the council they entrust to me, I will never discover to any man, to the injury 
o-fthe pope. I will assist them to retain and defend the popedom, and the ro^^alties 
of St. Peter, against all men. I will carefully conserve, defend, and promote the 
rights, honors, privileges and authority of the pope. I will not be in any council* 
fact, or treat}^, in which any thing prejudicial to the person, rights, or power of the 
pope is contrived. And if I shall know any such things, I will hinder them with all 
mv power, and will speedily make them known to the pope. To the utmost of my 
}iOwer, I will observe the pope's commands" {temporal of course and spiritual) "and 
I will make others observe them. And I will impugn and persecute all heretics, and 
all rebels, to my lord the pope." 

Now, is there a man in our Republic, who does not see that such men, as the. 
priests and bishops, w^ho are the vassals of a foreign court, — and are sworn by an 
oath paramount to all other oaths, to act on such dangerous principles, — -can never 
be true citizens! To be republicans, is, on their part, absolutely impossible ! They 
are initiated into despotism : from their earliest habits, they are trained to despotism ; 
they are the vassals of that foreign, haughty, and turbulent despot, the pope; whose 
court has kept all Europe in confusion : and has involved all nations thereof in con- 
tmuous scenes of bloodshed, rapine,, and desolation, for upwards of twelve hundred 
years! They are the successors of those men who were the papal tools in doing 
this : and they come among us to re-enact the same scenes. I hold them up to our 
fellow citizens, as spies in our camp : as our deadly foes : bound together by a fearful 
oath, and pledge to a foreign power, to compass the ruin of civil and religious liberty ! 
I implore my fellow citizens to listen to the words of the famous Rucellai, the secre- 
tary of the government of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Tliis patriotic man, a Ro- 
man catholic^ was filled with indignation at the proceedings of those scourges of the 



RaMAir CATHOLIC C0NTR0VER8Y. 319 

liuman family, — the Romish priests. And he labored with the Grand Duke, to put 
down this insulting and heaven daring Bulla in Coena Domini. In the close of his 
spirited appeal to the Grand Duke, this faithful secretary says: — "The priests ought 
to be punished as transgressors of national laws» Their obedience to this Bull In 
Coena, should cease to operate as an excuse for them. That Bull is published every 
where; its principles are taught in the schools," — yes! and also in every popish 
seminary in the United States! "It is inculcated on the penitents by their confessors; 
it is demonstratively unjust: it is subversive of all the rights of sov-ereignty, of law, 
of good order, and of public ^tranquillity !" Nay, exclaims that faithful and distin- 
guished statesman, in allusion to the priestly oaths ; " That oath, is in fact, a solemn 
promise not only to be unfaithful to one's lawful government ; but even to betray it, 
as often as the Court of Rome's interests may render it necessary !" See Mem.oirs of 
Scipio de Ricci. ch. 3. 

These are the atrocious principles of the men who are pouring in their legions of 
Jesuit priests on our shores! These are the outrageous principles, and politics of the 
men, who are rearing seminaries, and offering to teach Protestant children the true 
religion; and American republicans, sound jpolitics ! ! These are the revolutionizing" 
principles of men, who are looked upon with so much indifference, by some of out 
statesmen, and carressed as sound and worthy patriots, by others. 

I lift my pleading voice ; and Mdth deep solemnity warn every christian ; every 
politician; every magistrate; and every statesman in the land, against these foreign 
emissaries, of a foreign despot! By your love of country ; — by the memory of your 
fathers who gallantly braved all dangers, and broke a foreign tyrant's cruel yoke ; — 
by the souls of your children, and those yet unborn, — I implore you, throw the shield 
of your mighty influence, over our free institutions, and liberties ; and ward off the 
fatal blow, aimed in a novel assault by the despotic powers of Europe! Study the 
history of Jesuitism ; jwpish supremacy, and its bloody deeds in Europe,— and tremble 
for your country's liberties ! This, I implore you to remember, is no sectional ques- 
tion ! It is no question of sectarianism : it is no question of even religion. It con- 
cerns every lover of liberty, and of his country, whatever be his creed, or politics. 
The broad question is this, — shall we sit quietl}' still, and see our country converted 
into an arena of Jesuitism, despotism, and blood-shed, like another Europe which 
has been the bloody arena of an atrocious tyranny! Or shall we, by every fair and 
honorable means — even by the weapons of light and truth, diive by one harmonious 
effort, the enemy from our schools, from our sanctuary, from our firesides, and 
fromourhappysbor.es!. 

I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &c. 

w. e. B.. 



050 R0HA5 CATHOLIC COXTRGVZRsT. 



LETTER XXXIII. 

TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, A>'D THE LORD? EISHOPS OF THE ROMAV CATHOiKT 
CHURCH, !>' THE UMTED STATES. 

On the Six G:znd Attributes of Popery. — Imp::nty, Impiety, Arrogaiice, Treachery. 

Intohrcmce, and Cruelty. 

•■'No great slaughter, and no notorious calamity hath ever happened, either to church, or 
atate. of Tvhich tlie bishops of Rome have not been the authors !" ^. Sylvius, afterwards- 

pope Pius ii. in his Historia Ausiriee. 

Revep^evd Fathers : — On the pages of the scriptares the rise andTeigttof a sic- 
gular Power are graphically delineated. It is manifestly distinguished, b^." Daniel 
in ch. vii. from the Jirsthea^, the Babylonian empire: and from the sccc-;id, the 
Median and Persian: and from the tJiird, the Grecian : and from the^wrt^. the Ro- 
man pagan empire. The singular power I allude to, is " the Little Horn," which 
sprans up among the ten horns." " It had eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth 
speaking great thing?.** 

The apostle John also distinguishes it from the Beast rising up out of the sea : 
namely, the Roman empire pagan, rising amid the turbulent waves of the nations. 
Rev. xiii. I. This pagan power preceded tJieEeast I allude to. Rome pagan was* 
in the words of St. Paul, the power -which " no^w,"" — ^in his time, '* letteib and will 
let, until he be taken out of the way." 2 Thes. ii. 7. And this "letti;:g" power 
was "-taken out of the way," under the opening of the sixth seal, in the days cf Con- 
atantine. when paganism was overwhelmed, ana utterly destroyed : as a persecuting 
power. 

It was upon this fall of the Beast, that John, in Rev. siii. 11. saw " anotber Beast 
coming up out of the earth, having two horns like a Iamb ; but speaking as a 
dragoa." This, by Paul, is called "•The Man cf Sin:" and by John, "Babylon the 
Great," — even a greater persecutor than the first Babylon. Now, these predictions 
cannot be referred to any pagan power. 

The power foretold so minutely by Paul, arises out of '' the falling aicfiy," — that 
is, in the original Greek, — the cposiccy, from that which Paul taught : that is, tht 
apostacy from the christian faith. Hence it cannot be referred to any Pagan, or 
Mohammedan power. These never -were within the pale of the church; they can, 
in no sense, therefore, be the apostacy from the christian faith. 

Now, where, within the name and limit of the christian world, shall we find a 
power ansTvering to the names and designation here presented to us, by Paul? I said, 
it is a power ; for it is evidently not applicable to 07ie man, or a few wicked men : nor 
to a mere moral, and theological society, such as that of Socinians, Arians, or Deists. 
It is a power clothed with civil power. It is a great poioer, which the Roman impe- 
rial government, as it existed in PauTs days, "did let," and "would let," until 
"removed out of the wa^'." This fact determines it to be some extensive cirii 
tyranny, as well as spiritual tyranny, or " apostacy'^ springing up, within the limits of 
the christian world. Now, there is not a power that has ever existed, or does ndw 
exist, in which this descriptiou can, with the least consistency be apphed, but one. 
And that is, — the Roman cathoUc hierarchy : the attributes of which are these. 

First: liiPURiTT. He is ''the Man of Sin.' ^ The pope, his cardinals, and court 



ROMAN CA1H0LIC COITTROVERST. 



321 



Sre to a proverb, notoriously profligate.. Such writers as Baronius, Dupin, and 
Bower set this matter in the clearest Hght. Guicciardini, the historian, and secretary 
to Pope Leo X, when speaking of the popes of the 15th and 16th centuries, frankly 
avers that, " he v/as esteemed a good pope, who did not exceed in wickedness, the 
worst of men !" One pope (John xxiii.) was, by a council, convicted, says Labbeus, 
o^ forty crimes ! From the fountain head was spread like a mighty torrent, universal 
pollution and crime, over all Roman catholic countries. In fine, in addition to all 
that I have already exhibited, I refer to the statements of Cardinal Ambrosius of Ca- 
nadoli, who, in visiting his diocese " could not find even the traces of common 
decency in ths various convents." And those who wish to contemplate an honest 
portrait of the holy priests' morals, especially since celibacy^ the master device of the 
devil, and pope Gregory vii., was imposed on them, can consult Edgar's Variations 
of Popery, chap. 15. By chastity, the priests never mean what honest and pure 
christians mean. With priests it means no more than " the virtue of abjuring mar- 
riage ;" while every nameless enormity and shocking crime, which destroyed Sodom, 
is perpetrated, and even gloried in by those chaste fathers ! European and South 
American catholic countries groan under the licentiousness of these clerical profli- 
gates! I speak soberly when I affirm that church history sets them forth, in general; 
and those of Italy and Spain, in particular, as many degrees worse than the priests of 
pagan lands, in ancient or modern times ! And, as if personal pollution did not redeem 
their title given them by the Spirit of God, — namely, " the Man of Sin," — ihey actu- 
ally traffic in sin ! Hence, their indulgences to commit sin, and absolutions from old 
crimes, for money ! — Hence, " the Tax Book of the Holy Apostolical chancer f for- 
merly quoted by us, — in which is set down a regular papal tariff of the diiTerent 
crimes, absolved for money ; the greater crimes being always the most pro^ table to 
the treasury of the pope and his ravenous priesthood : and therefore, — though with a 
frown, — always the most gladly listened to at the confessional ! 

And it is not of Romish morals in the dark ages, that we speak. We point to the 
vicious morals of the present day, in Spain, Austria, France, and most especi::lly in 
Italy. For the nearer we come to the head quarters of his "Holiness," we pe ceive 
their atrocity increased in a frightful ratio. Eustace in his Classical Tour, vol. iii. 
131, speaking of the notoriously depraved morals of Itftly, says, — "may the}^ not be 
ascribed to the corruptions of the national religion ; to the facility of ahsoluiio?! ; and 
to the easy purchase of indulgences?^^ "We saw a man at Tivoli," saj'^s a modern 
traveller, "who had stabbed his brother, who died in an hour, in agonies. The 
murderer went to Rome, purchased his pardon from the church, and received a v/ritten 
protection from a cardinal; in consequence of which he was walking about, uncon- 
cernedly, a second Cain, whose life was sacred." Graham's Three Month's Resi- 
dence &c. p. 34. "Those who have interest with the pope, may obtain an alsolutioiv 
in full, from his Holiness, for all the sins they have ever committed, or ma.y'^ choose to 
commit.''^ "I have seen one of these edifying documents," continues the traveller, 
"issued by the present pope, to a friend of mine." Rome in the 19th cc?itury, vol. ii.. 
p. 271. 

Hence we are warranted in saying that the voice of sober history has distinctly 
pronounced that to no pagan, and to no other apostate religion, under the heavens, can 
the extraordinary title of " Man of Sin," be honestly and truly applied, than to the 
Romish church. It would be a positive breach of charity in a christiau, to apply it 
to a pagan, or any apostate religion, except the Roman hierarchy. 



322 ROMAN CATHOLIC COJfTROVERSY. 

The secotid, and third attributes of this power ar^ Impiety, and Arrogance, which I 
ahall examiae in connection. "He opposeth and exalteth himself above "^U &at is 
called God , or that is worshipped." 

This dividej itself into a tvrofold count. First, " He opposeth all that is called 
God, and exalteth himself above all that is called God." Now let the Bible explain 
itself: magistrates are, on its sacred pages, called gods. " I said ye are gods." Now 
I revert to my first principle : this can refer to no Pagan, Jew, or Mohammedan 
power. Th?se grew out of no " apostacy" from Christianity. To a power within 
the limits of the christian world alone, is it applicable. But has the Roman hierar- 
chy done thi.s ihing that is here laid in the count? She has, and she is the rnilv j)ower 
within the christian world who has done so. What Pope Gregory Vil, rr rhe head 
of a Council decreed, has been the audacious practice of these lordly priesis ;— " The 
Pope OLigit to be called Universal Bishop; he alone ought to wear the tokens of Im- 
perial dignity; all princes ought to kiss his feet: he has power to depose emperors 
and kings, and is to be judged by none." 

The Glossa upon Can. 2, Cap. 15, says — " the Pope can give dispensations against 
the gospel, the apostles, and the law of nature." Glossa, Cap. 4. Extra v. Johan- 
nis XXII. "Whosoever shall presumptuously venture to maintain, that our lord 
god the Pope, cannot thus decree, let him be holden as a heretic;" and Boniface in 
his bull, sa\ s— " God has set us up over kings and kingdoms, to root up and destroy ; 
whoso thinketh otherwise, we hold him as a heretic." 

Pope Boniface VHI. concludes his famous Bull " Unam sanctam,^'' with the follow- 
ing words; — "Y/e, therefore, declare, say, define, and pronounc-3 it to be w;cjssar3/ to 
salvation, that every human creature should be obedient to the Roman ?ontiff." 
Sext. Deciet. extrav. lib. 1. 

The church of Rome has never ceased to assert her temporal jurisuiciion over 
princes and magistrates. I refer you, Fathers, to the words of the counci; of Con- 
stance, fifteenth session: — "If any person shall presume to violate the statiites, and 
ordinances o^ the holy council, — he shall be deprived of all diginties, estates, honors, 
offices, and h* aefices, ecclesiastical or secular, whether he be emperor, king, cardinal, 
or pope." So al.-o do the council of Trent, Sess. 25. In the Bull of Q,rpen Eliza- 
heth's "damnation, and excommunication," pope Pius V. declares that "Aimighty 
God has appointed him, the pope, prince over all nations, and all kingdom.:?, ihat he 
may pluc^. up, destroy, scatter, ruin, plant, and build." See Camden's Hist. A. D. 
1570. 

I shall give a few extracts from "the Pope's Book of ceremonies." lb;:: singular 
book is in the library of Dublin college : it was shown to Mr. Finch, by Or. Saddler, 
librarirxii. It is entitled, — Sacrarum Ceremon. Rom. Eccles. Libri Tres.^'' Cologn. 
Edit. 1571. — " 1. The emperor shall hold the pope's stirrup. 2. The emperor shall 
Ifiad th© pope's horse. 3. He must bear the pope's chair on his shoulder. — 7. He 
shall carry the pope's first dish. 8. He shall carry the pope's first cup." Ses Finch, 
Rom. Controv. p. 312. 

And these laws of the ghostly usurper are fully confirmed by history, which reveals 
how completely ^' the ten pov/ers" of all Europe surrendered their power to " the 
Beast:" and how every class of the magistracy has, by the pope, been insulted, 
maltreated, and degraded ! I cannot help noticing two classes of facts, which set this 
ia the clearest light* First, — Popes have deposed kings and emperors ; and even 
s^t their feet on their prostrate necks. Need I refer to king John of England, and 



ROMAN CATHOLIC COKl^ROVERSY. 323 

Henry IV. empefor of Germany ? iS'econc?,'^Fopes have audaciously suspended the 
laws of nations; have absolved subjects from their oath of allegiance to their lawful 
rulers; nay, the wretched priest, residing at Rome, has, for ages exacted tribute from 
kings, and their people, as his subjects. This was exacted under the canting name 
of Peter's pence, in Britain, Ireland, Spain, France, and the northern nations of 
Europe. 

There was one item more, to fill up the features of *' the Man of Sin," as delineated 
by the hand of unerring inspiration. The pope has claimed supreme power over 
"these gods below," — the magistrates: but angels are "the gods above,"-~the rulers 
in heavenly places. The pope has filled up the full measure of the perfect likeness 
of "the Man of Sin ;" he claims supreme power also over the angels of heaven. For 
instance, pope Clement VI. in his bull for a jubilee, after having promised pardon of 
sins past, present, and to come, adds, (p« 2.) "Et mandamus angelis ut animam e 
purgatorio, penitus absolutam, in Paradisi gloriam introducaut. We command the an- 
gels to take his soul out of purgatory, wholly clear and absolved, and introduce it 
into the glory of Paradise." But, there is a second count in the indictment: — "The 
Man of Sin — exalteth himself above all that is worshipped." We admit that th« 
pagan emperor was styled Divus, and even " dominus deus, the lord god.'' I 
revert to the principle laid down. The power, is an Apostate power from chris" 
tianity. And we need only to open the pages of approved Roman writers to discover 
an overpowering evidence that the Romish church is here intended. " Our Lord 
god, the pope," is a common appellation of each pope. " Papa non est humo," the 
pope is not a man." " The pope holds the place of the true God." See Piihou 29 
Canon law, Decret i. Tit. 7. cap. 3. Bellarmine in the famous passage, so often re- 
verted to, teaches the pope's absolute infallibility in laying down arUcles of faith ; 
and precepts of morals: and addsthat "if the pope could err, by enjoining vices, or 
prohibiting virtues, the church would be bound to believe that vices were virtues, and 
virtues, vices, unless she chose to sin against her conscience." J?e Pontif. Lib. IV. 
cap. 5. Among the first acts after a pope's election, is that called, the adoration oftht 
pope. We have an account of it by an eye witness, in Finch, p. 322. He is carried 
in by men, and placed on the great altar, in St. Peter's, where the host, their god, 
usually is laid ; and there as in Thibet this man god is adored, even as their host is 
adored! — Every man admitted to the pope at Rome must kneel down, and kiss hi« 
foot, as he salutes him with, — ^'Dominus noster deus, papa ! — 27<e Lord our god iht 
pope! And this godship is thus claimed by pope Clement VIL, and his cardinals, in 
their letter to Charles VI., of France : — " As there is only one God in the lieavens, so 
there cannot, and there ought not to be but one God on earth," — meanajg himself! 
See Troissard, Tom. iii. 147, folio. 

But the arrogant claims of" the Son of perdition," are not confined to an array of 
divine titles. As a legislator does the arrogant blasphcn^er seat himself in God's 
throne: He has abrogated, as Ave have seen in a former letter, all God's ten com- 
mandments: to the one only object of divine worship, has he added a host of false 
gods; he has perverted both sacraments, and added five novelties to them: he juits 
the moiis m the place of Christs' atonement; and holy ivuter, and oulward rites of 
cleansing, in the stead of the Holy Ghost. Thus, has he cliangcd ihe laws and ordi- 
nances of the Most High, as far as his power can do it. And, as if venturing llie 
utmost daring, the unmatched blasphemer has set up his claims of right lo (he keys of 
hell, and uf heaven. He saves ; he rfam«5, when he will! I appeal to his Bulls of 



324 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

excommunication, in proof of this. I open the book at random : I fall on the Bull of 
Pius v., against the Queen of England. In this, I have the proof of both points. 
He declares that his catholics alone are saved : he opens the gates of heaven to none 
but those of Holy Mother, — "extra quam nulla salus est: out of her, there is no sal- 
vation.''^ Hence he condemns the soul, as well as body; hence the title of the Bull of 
Pius v., against the Queen of England, — " the damnation of Queen Elizabeth." 
There was only one step more that he could go,^ — and that he has gone too. He 
lias actually set up his claim in a physical, as well as a rnoral sense, above " all that 
is worshipped." I allude to what I have again and again brought before the public. 
In every mass-house, the pope and his delegates, the priests, by muttering the con- 
secration words ^^ hoc est corpus meum,'^ convert a wafer into "the body and blood 
soul and divinity of Christ !" He and his lieutenants thus do create their Creator^ 
ten thousand times ! And having ten thousand times eaten, "their Creator," they 
again create him, ten thousand times more ! 

May I be permitted here to advert briefly to the graphic delineation of this poiver 
by St. Paul, in 1 Tim. iv. 1 — 4., in order to throw an additional illustration on these 
papal attributes, from that striking text? — It is a power which "-has departed from the 
faith,'" that is, the christian faith. Hence it cannot be referred to any pagan, or 
Jewish, or Mohammedan, or atheistic power. It is an apostate christian society. 
Now mark the full length, and perfect portrait, of popery ! First, it gives "heed to 
the doctrines of devils;" in Greek, demons. By demons is understood, according 
to the ideas of the ancients, that class of beings between the immortal God, and mortal 
men, that is, deified spirits of men ; that is, canonized saints ; elevated to the rank of 
Inferior worship. 

Now, let any candid man, Roman catholic, or protestant, name a power, within 
the limits of the christian world, which has set up canonized saints, and also angels, 
for worship, besides the Romish church. Who is it that has its altars reared to them, 
its shrines, its images, and temples? The Romish church. Who has its enshrined 
relics for adoration ? The Romish church. V/ho burns its incense before an innu- 
merable host of gods and goddesses, surnamed saints? The Romish church. 

Second : It is said of this apostacy from the faith, that it shall forbid to marry,^'' 
Among the fanatical pagan priests, ancient and modern, in the Eastern world, the 
state of celibacy has been bepraised to the skies, Justin proportion to their lewdness; 
and marriage has been, of course, forbidden. But this passage of Paul refers only to 
those who "/larf departed from the christian faith." To no pagans, therefore, can it 
be applied. Now what power is it, within the christian v/ord, that foioids marriage? 
Do you Fev. Fathers, and your chaste priests answer, by an extract from your vow 
of chastity. Why do you not marry, like other honest men ? Why,— the answer is 
written on 3rour forehead, and in 3^our morals,™ because you obey that diabolical 
APOSTACY, which "forbids to marry." 

Third: This apostate pov/er commands "to abstain from certain meats, which 
God hath created." Now, determining the meaning of this by the principle already- 
laid down, what power within the whole range of Christendom, commands "to 
abstain from meats ;" and makes this abstaining from meats, a portion of its religion ? 
Let our learned priests answer the question, who would pronounce their terrific 
anathema on their followers, and doom even to hell fire all those who would dare to 
eat meat in Lent, and on Fridays, and until lately, on Saturdays. To the Roman 
hierarchy is this descriptive prophesy wholly applicable ; and to it alone. Henee 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 325 

the Roman church is that impious Man of Sin, and arrogant Son of perdition, 
spoken of by Paul. 

Thus far have we treated of the first three attributes of popery. 

I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



LETTER XXXIV. 



TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS, OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 

On the Six Grand Attributes of Popery, — Impurity, Impiety, Arrogance, Treachery^ 

Intolerance, and Cruelty. 

** Art thou that traitor angel, art thoM he, 

Who first broke peace in heaven, and faith, till then 

Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms 

Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons 

Conjured against the Highest?" Miltok. 

Reverend Fathers : — The fourth grand attribute of popery, is Treachery ; to 
this I beg your usual indulgent attention. Jesuitism was revived by Pope Pius vii. 
in 1814 ; and Jesuitism in its primitive virulence, is poured forth in a wide inunda- 
tion, over our land, by the spiritual despots of Italy, France, and Austria. And every 
one knows that Jesuitism is now a regular classical English M'ord for Treachery. 

1st. I shall quote a few specimens of their avowed moral tenets, in addition to what 
has been formerly quoted by us. 

" They do not falsify, who to replace a lost title of heirship, forge another." Sa, 
Aphor. p. 150. — "If any one promised, or contracted, without intention to promise; 
and is called, upon oath, to answer, he may simply answer. No. And he may 
swear to this denial, by secretly understanding that he did sincerely promise ; or that 
he did promise without any intention to acknowledge it." Suarez Ju. Precept Lib. 
3. cap. 9. p. 473. " A person may take an oath that he has not done such a thing» 
though he has, in fact, done it, by saying to himself, it was not done on a certain 
day; or, before he was born, &c." — Sanchez, Oper. Moral precept. Decal. pars 2 ; 
Lib. 3. cap. 6. No. 13 — '* He who is not bound to tell the truth before swearing, is 
not bound by his oath ; provided he makes the inttrnal restriction that excludes the 
present case." Charli, Prop. G. p. 8. "A priest is not bound to declare the truth 
before a lawful judge ; for a priest cannot be forced to testify before a secular judged 
Taberna, vol. ii. p. 288. " The rebellion of a ])riest is not treason, for Catholic 
priests are not subject to civil government.'^ Em. Sa. Aphor. p. 41. And here is the 
sentiment of Bellarmine, which every priest in the United States is solemnly sworn 
on the cross, to believe, and to carry into practice, whenever it is practicable, "on 
pain of damnation," — "The spiritual power must rule the temporal by all sorts of 
means, and expedients that may seem necessary." " The pope — potest mutare reg- 
na &[yC. can change kingdoms ; can take away power from one ])rince, and give it to 
another, in his character as chief spiritual Prince." "Thepopo cannot, as pope, 
enact and annul laws, ordinarily, as if he were a ])oli(ical prince: he can enact civil 
laws and confirm them, or abolish them, if such be necessary to the salvation of souls, 

29 



326 ROiL\?f CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

and kings be unwilling to enact them." '"The ci\'il power is subject to the spiritual; 
fotestas civilis suhjecta est potesiati spirituali : therefore, the spiritual prince, the pope 
can rule over temporal princes, and magistrates. In every case, must the spiritual, 
which is the superior, bear rule over the temporal, which is inferior." See Bell. De 
Pontif. Lib, v. cap. 6, 7. p. p. 1094, 1095., of my copy. I beg to give a few more 
specimens. 

" The pope can annul, and cancel every possible obligation arising from an oath." 
Lessius, Lib. ii. cap. 42. p. 632. "A man condemned by the pope," — (such as a 
Jew, a Protestant, a deist.) may be killed wherever he is found." Lo Croix, vol. i. 
p. 294. " A child may steal from his father, as much as the father would have 
given to a stranger, for compensation." Escobar. Theol. jVloral. vol. iv. p. 348. 
"Servants may steal from their masters as much as they judge their labor worth, 
more than the wages they receive.'* Cardenas, Cris. Theol. Diss. 23. cap. 2. p. 474. 
And Lud. Molina, Vol. ii. p. 1150. (My copy is the Mentz Edit, of 1614.) --It is 
lawful to kill an accuser, whose testimony may jeopard your life or honor." Esco- 
bar, Theol. Moral, vol. iv. p. 274. '* Licet procurare abortum, ne puella gravida 
infametur." &:c. Marin. Theol. vol. iii. p. 428. This I must not translate. "If a 
man become a nuisance to society, the son may lawfully kill his father.'" Dicastilloj 
Lib. ii. p. 290. Such is a mere gleaning of their atrocious tenets. And in the redu- 
cing of them to practice they are moU faithful in ever\- element of their treachery! 
The histor\' of all the governments of Europe, who have all in their turns, expelled 
ihem, tes*ify to this I And the faithful historian of future America, if ever, by the 
wrath of G jd, they gain the ascendancy here, will bear an appalling testimony to the 
same melancholy truths ; in the tears, and assassinations, and massacres of our chil- 
dren's children I 

From these avowed tenets, it is easy to see that a Roman catholic can take any 
oath, be it before a civil court, or the oath of allegiance, and yet never design, in sober 
truth, to consider himself loand by it! Yes, my fellow citizens; and he is quite con- 
sistent on his principles ; for he has two ways of escaping as the deluded man 
beheves, without peijnry resting, in its damning guilt, on his soul. First; by mental 
reservation. Second, by the priest's power to absolve him from it. There is another 
and a practical way to evade their oath. A friend of mine was present one day, 
when a Roman catholic, in New York, boasted that he had voted at th rue different poles : 
and took the oath thrtt times, that he was a citizen, and had resided the requisite time 
m each of the three wards, at ones: "I caught them," said the Jesuit, "thus : I put 
my thumb across the holy sign of the cross, on the book ; and kissed my thumb ! And 
(hat you know, is no oath at all, — at all !" T^his, as observers see, is no uncommon 
thins: with our Romans, in our civil, and criminal courts ! 

2d. " Keep nx) faith with heretics," is a regular dogma, and a solemn doctrine of the 
Roman catholic church, i 

The denial of this has, lately, been repeated by a venerable citizen in Philadel- 
phia. Will sober readers of histon.^ believe it that such a man as Mr. C. gravely 
denies it ? No man can question Mr. C's. honor or sincerity'. It is purely his want of 
knowledge of the Roman catholic standard doctrines that has led him to the rash as- 
sertion. 

He has appealed, it is true, to the answers of the famous foreign XTniversities, to the 
questions proposed bv the late Mr. Pitt. These grave societies, combining all the 
learning, and honor of the Romish world, really affect to start with horror at the bare 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 327 

suspicion of their Holy Mother ever having held, or taught that " no faith must be kept 
with heretics!" They all flatly and solemnly deny that their church ever held it, or 
ever taught it. And they even lay these denials before the British government! 

Here, again, Mr. C. betrays his painful ignorance of the manners and besetting sin 
of all Roman ecclesiastics : I do not say lay gentlemen, but oi^ priests, under whose 
Jesuitism those Universities are sordidly enchained. No shrewd politician, nor chris- 
tian is deceived by these answers, for one moment. Every body read in history, and 
in popish Bulls, canons, and theology, as the professors of these same Universities 
are, know in the most perfect manner, that there is no truth whatever in their re 
plies to Mr. Pitt. These were uttered merely for effect , and did any one yet ever 
hear the criminals at the bar reply otherwise than not guilty, to the usual question 
put to them. Mr. Pitt as a well read man, could expect no other answer; and he got 
no other, than what these ghostly criminals ch.os& to give, " we plead not guilty. ^^ 

Now I shall go directly to the decretals and the pope's bureau, and to historical 
documents. Will you follow me, Fathers, while I try your pleas of not guilty 
of ever holding the dogma *' That no faith is to be kept with heretics.''* 

Gregory VII. in a council at Rome, declares, " We, following the statutes of our 
predecessors, do, by our apostolic authoriiy, absolve all those from their oath of 
fidelity, who are bound to excommunicated persons, either by duty or oath; and we 
unloose them from every tie of obedience, till the excommunicated persons have 
made proper satisfaction." Decret. 2 part. cans. 15. quest. 6. 

Urban II. teaches the same doctrine. "You are to discharge the soldiers," says 
he, " who have sworn fidelity to Count Hugo, from paying any obedience while he 
is excommunicated : for they are not obliged to keep that fidelity inviolate, which 
they have sworn to a christian prince, who opposes God, and his saints, and despises 
their precepts." — Ibid. 

Gregory IX. has laid down the general principle with the utmost care and pre- 
cision. "Be it known to all who are under the dominion of heretics, that they are 
set free from every tie of fidelity and duty to them; all oaths or solemn agreement to 
the contrary notwithstanding.'''' Decret. Greg. lib. 5. tit. 7. 

Clement XI. being enraged at the treaty of Alt-Rhastat, says in his Brief to the 
emperor Charles VI,, " We denounce to you, and, by the authority given us, by the 
Most Almighty God, do declare the covenants of that treaty, &c. &c. to be, de jure, 
null and void, invalid, unjust, reprobated, ^c. ; that no person is bound to the observ^ 
ation of them, or any of them, although the same have been repeatedly ratified, or 
secured by an oath ; and they neither could nor ought to have been, nor can nor 
ought to be, observed by any person whatsoever," &-c. 

Here are a few more gleanings from the papal decretals, — Martin V. in his epistle 
to the Duke of Lithuania says, — "Be assured thou sinnest mortally, if thou keep 
thy faith with heretjcs." St, Thomas Aquinas is of the same opinion, " that a 
catholic might deliver over an intractable heretic to the judges, although he had 
solemnly pledged his faith to him ; and even confirmed it by the solemnity of an 
oath." Bruce's Free Thoughts, &c. p. 119. 

Bonacir^o says, — " Contracts made against the canon law, are invalid, even though 
confirmed by an oath ; and a \i)nn is nr)t bound to stand by his promise, even though 
he had sworn it." Pope Pius V, taught the einperor, and exhorted him, — "Noc fidem, 
&c. Tijat no faith, nor oaths were to be kept with an inlidel." Poj)o Innocent 
VIIL in his edict against the Waldenscs, in A, D. 1487, declared, as the vicar of 



328 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

God, that — "all those persons who had been bound by any contract whatever, to 
grant, or pay any thing to them, should not be under any manner of obhgation, to 
do so, for the time to come." 

And, Fathers, what pope, and general council openly avouched that no faith must 
be kept with heretics? Innocent IV., and the council of Lyons, when they deposed 
the emperor Frederick II., and absolved his subjects from their oath of allegiance to 
their lawful prince ! Who avouched that no faith must be kept with heretics ? That 
pope who absolved the subjects of king John from their lawful oath of allegiance! 
Who avowed that no faith must be kept with heretics? Pope Pius V. who doomed 
Ehzabeth, and set her subjects free from iheir oath to their lawful sovereign ! Who 
was guilty of that doctrine of devils that no faith is to be kept with Jews, Turks, or 
heretics? That ghostly villain, pope Clement VII., w^ho dispensed with the corona- 
tion oalh of the king of Spain, the emperor Charles V., in the year 1524; and com- 
pelled that prince in the face of the world, to break his faith pledged by oath, to protect 
the Moors; and thence to turn that whole race, in Spain, over to the infernal Inqui- 
sition ! See the Spanish Hist, of this period : and Geddes' Works on popery, vol. i. 
p. 36. 39. 

x\nd to suit the orihodoxy of those who judge a council superioi to the pope, 1 beg 
leave to say that this dogma has been settled by the decree, and by the practice, of a 
general council of your church. The council of Constance, in 1414, did solemnly 
decree tliat "no faith shall be kept with heretics." Here are their words: — "The 
person who has given them the safe conduct to come thither, shall not, in this case, 
be obliged to keep his promise, by ivhatever tie he may have been engaged, when he has 
done all that has been in his power to do.'^ Bruce, Free Thoughts, p. 120. 

Nor was this a bold theory in the brains of licentious priests. It was, with that 
savage ferociousness, the usual characteristic of Romish priests, reduced into practice, 
in a horrible tragedy in Europe. The immortal John Huss had come to this council 
under the solemn pledge, and safeguard of the emperor Sigismund. These ghostly 
judges, amid their revellings, and debauchery, found a brief space of relaxation, to 
condemn the holy man as a heretic. They doomed him to the flames ! The emperor 
interposed : pleaded his safeguard that had been pledged to Huss, on his royal honor. 
Of all beings that walk the face of God's earth, the priests of a false religion, are the 
most desti lute of honor, common decency, and the bowels of pity. Charles V., at a 
later day, had the resolution to reject with a noble firmness, the pleas of the inhuman 
assassins, who sought Luther's blood, with an appetite as keen as that of a New 
Zealand cannibal! When pleading with him, and urging with indecent zeal, that 
no faith should be kept with heretics, he nobly replied to the savage teachers of Jesuit 
morals, " What ! when good faith is banished from the earth, — ought it not to be 
found with an emperor !" 

But, alas! for John Huss, — Sigismund had not this honor nor firmness. He yielded 
to the spiritual assassins of the council of Constance, and Huss was consigned alive 
to the flames! And shortly after him, also, Jerome of Prague / The council of 
Trent formally recognized the decrees of Constance. Hence this doctrine "of keep- 
ing no faith with heretics," is as much a regular dogma of the Romish church, as is 
the mass, or purgatory, or the pope's supremacy. 

I conclude the specimens of Treachery with the following extracts from " The oath 
of secrecy devised by the Roman clergy, as it remains on record in Paris, among the 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 329 

sociefy of Jesuits." It is copied from a collection of papers by Archbishop Usher. 
It exhibits to x^rnerican citizens, the stcret oath, by which all Jesuits are bound to the 
pope, and their foreign superiors. I beg the attention of every christian, and patriot 
in the land, to this document. 

Secret Oath. — "In the presence of Almighty God, and of all the saints, to you, 
my ghostly father, I do declare that his holiness, pope , is Christ's vicar- 
general, and the only head of the universal church throughout the earth : and that 
by virtue of the keys given him by my Savior, Jesus Christ, he hath jpoiver to depose 
heretical kings, princes, states, commonwealths, and governments ; all being illegal, 
without his sacred confirmation ; and that they may safely be destroyed. Therefore I, 
to the utmost of my power, shall and ivill defend this doctrine, and his holiness^ rights 
and customs against all usurpers,''^ &c. 

'^Ido renounce and disoicn any allegiance as due to any heretical king, prince, 
state, named Protestants, or obedience to any of their inferior magistrates, or officers.'^ 

" I do further promise and declare that notwithstanding / am dispensed with, to aS' 
sume any religion heretical, for the propagation of the Mother church's interest, — to 
keep secret and private all her agent's counsels," &c. 

"All which I, A. B. do swear by the blessed Triuity, and the blessed sacrament, 
which I am, now, to receive. And I call all the heavenly and glorious hosts above, 
to witness these my real inten'ions, to keep this my oath. In testimony hereof, I 
take this most blessed sacrament of the eucharist, and set to my hand, and seal." 
Such is the secret oath of our Jesuits, so long in use, and never revoked to this day, 
by their superior, or the pope. Such is the infernal oath by which the Jesuits, and 
other household troops of the Roman catholic powers of Europe, now pouring in upon 
us, are banded together in their present conspiracy against our republic, and our holy 
religion ! 

May the God of our fathers, in his compassion, awake our fellow citizens to a sense 
of their real, and appalling danger, and turn into confusion the counsels of the leaders 
of this hellish plot against our country. And to this none can refuse their hearty 
Amen, but spiritual tyrants, and conscious traitors. 

I am, my Lords Bishops, yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



LETTER XXXY. 



TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOt,lC 
CHURCH, IN XVLW UNITED STATES. 

On the Six Grand Attributes of Pojyery, -^Impurity, Impiety, Arrogance, T'reachery^ 

intolerance, and Cruelty. 

"No illusion is more diuigoions than to make toleration of religious sects, a mark of the 
true chiiroli !" — Bassitrt, Oeucrcs, Tom. Hi. 411. 

Reverend Fathers: — I au) (juito uwaro that your good sense approves my direct 
appeals to documents, instead of assertions, and declamation : let us then go on. The 
Fifth attrihule of your church is Intolerance. This and Cruelty, has ever been your 
eminently characteristic marks. And this struck the eye of the holy John in vision. 

29* 



330 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

He saw "the scarlet colored Beast," bearing along in stately procession, the woman 
of Babylon in fiery scarlet colors, drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the 
martyrs of Jesus." Now, this is not fulfilled, ultimately, in the scarlet robed pope, 
and his scarlet chair, his scarlet robed priesthood on Maunday Thursdays; and the 
scarlet robed cardinals, with their scarlet hats, their scarlet chariots, and scarlet horse 
trappings! This we enumerate among the striking coincidents of the case. It looks 
to a deeper, a more atrocious, and damning attribute of popery, which we are now to 
consider. 

Boniface VII., in Extra vagantes, declares the principle on which all papists be- 
lieve and act; namely, — "Omnes Christi fideles, &c. It is necessary to salvation 
that all christians should be subject to the pope." " Papa est, &c. The pope is 
monarch of all christians; he is supreme over all mortals." Bzovius, De Pontif. 
Roman Col. Agrip. cap. 1, 3, J 6, 32, and 45. 

The present pope keeps alive this intolerant dogma, in our day. "On the holy 
See," says Gregory XVI., "do the churches depend for support, and vigor!" (En- 
cyc. Letter.) In this Bull, he denounces freedom of opinion, as "a senseless free- 
dom." "He, alone, has the dispensation of the canons: he, alone, decides on the 
rules of the sanction of the fathers." Hence neither priest, nor layman, neither 
sovereign, nor council, can dictate to him, in temporals, or spirituals ! He pronounces 
"liberty of conscience an absurd and erroneous opinion, a delirious conceit!" He 
holds up the freedom of the press, every where, to catholic indignation, " a never- 
to-be-sut^ciently execrated liberty of booksellers!" He is "horror-stricken," at the 
spread of knowledge: it is his deadliest foe. And, thus, in the nineteenth century, 
the po])ere news the sentiment preached three centuries ago, by the vicar of Croy- 
don, — namely, " We must root out printing, or printing will root us out I'" He ap- 
plauds the salutary Index Expurgatorius, by which all our theological works, and 
almost all our classical English authors, are prohibited! 

Your council of Trent, Sess. 4, prohibited " the free and promiscuous reading of 
the holy scriptures, — as causing more evil than good/' Hence, the Romish church 
places the holy Bible in the Index, — not merely Protestant translations, but their otvn 
Douay, and all other versions in any vernacular, as prohibited books, not to be read by 
any man, without a written license from a bishop." 

Your pope Pius VII., issued his Bull against Bible societies in 1816; and pro- 
nounced them " a shocking and most crafty device, to sap the very foundations of 
religion." See a copy of this Bull, in Glasg. Prot. Amer. Edit. vol. i. ch. 33. 

In short, cast your eyes over Roman catholic lands. There your pope prohibits, 
under pain of death, all Protestants to. teach their religion, wherever he has control. 
Your pope, and the priest-ridden despots of Europe, prohibit every man from uttering 
under the penalty of the dungeon, even an opinion against your church, or the govern- 
ment ! 

Romish lands are the lands of white slaves! The very soul is in chains. Your 
church, and her sons, the civil despots, have a system of passports, by which you 
know the movements of every man in the land; they have their espionage, and 
tlieir armed police, at the appoach of which, liberty sickens and dies. These 
minions rush into any man's house ; seize his papers, and letters, and drag the sus- 
pected to dungeons ! The habeas corpus law, — which is dear to every freeman's soul, 
lias no name, nor place in popish lands. They have their secret inquisitions to cure 
Keresy, and stop the progress of light, and science. True, The Grand Inquisition is 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 331 

no more. But every Romish bishop is the inquisitor in his own diocese, in our land, 
and in Europe ! 

In a word, no man in your communion is allowed to read, or even to think, for 
himself on religion. " I think it is so," said a young medical student, a Roman 
catholic, at the confessional, — "You think," exclaimed the confessor, in a voice 
choked with fury, " what right have you to think ? Let me never catch you think- 
ing again !" He is now a man, and a Protestant ; and was lately, if he is not still, in 
this city. 

In short, no slave in all the Indies, — no galley slave chained to his oar, no wretched 
victim chained in the inquisitor's cell, is more chained down, in body, than is the 
genuine papist chained down in soul, conscience, and thought, by an outrageous and 
villainous priest, to the pope's galley oar! We pity and deplore his case from our 
souls. And no tyrant's or usurper's fall, do we pray for, and toil, more, to accomplish, 
than the prostration, and annihilation of prfesicra/i .' Oh! Lord Jesus, how 
long! Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! 

Such, Fathers, as you know, is the uncompromising spirit of popery ; unmingled, 
and strong in its elements of malignity ; without any one counteracting, or neutrali- 
zing principle of clemency to the species ! And it breathes this ferocious spirit into 
the most devoted of its victims. And as the lower order in every community, are the 
most abjectly priest-ridden, this spirit shows itself in them, just in proportion as 
the light and influence of Protestantism, science, and piety, have shed none of their 
transforming elficacy upon them. 

Hence, the melancholy and deplorable condition of the middling, and especially, 
the lower order, in three, out of the four provinces in Ireland, in Italy, Spain, and 
the Roman Catholic cantons of the Swiss! The native genius of these people is 
equal to that of any people under heaven. There is not a nobler, kinder, more 
generous, or more gifted soul than that of an Irishman, or the descendant of the Gaul, 
of the Swiss, or the ancient and immortal Homan! But, alas! behold the accursed, 
the deadly influence of popery on them ! It chains them hand and foot, and throws 
ihem back into ihe darkest days of the darkest ages! 

It is an axiom of truth, established by the luminous evidence of history, and experience, 
that no class of our species, bears a nearer likeness to the Author of all false religions, 
than the priests of false religions. And, as popery, if we receive the testimony of St. 
Paul, is "in its coming," in a pre-eminent manner, " after the working of Satan, and 
with all deceivableness of unrighteousness," of course, its priesthood, and its priestcraft 
bear, in all points, a superior resemblance to its supernatural fabricator ! Unrelent- 
ing malignity has ever been their prominent, and, I fear, their boasted, and cherish- 
ed attribute ! Hence the Inquisitionl Hence persecution, terrific, refined in cruelty, 
lavish in its horrid devices, and imj)lements, persevering, and diabolical, on the 
part of those who, in their illiberal, and exclusive views, call themselves Catholics J 
And all this has been to an extent, unknown, in number, as well as degree of viru- 
lence, even in pagan persecutions! Did the pagans ever conceive an inquisition? 
Did the pagans create the monster, called an inquisitor 1 Did the pagans ever 
conceive the idea of the hell and tortures of a Spanish inquisition ? No, never! 
They are guiltless of all these ! 

It was in the pro])hetic vision of this bloody attribute of ])opcry, that John " won- 
dered with great admiration!" He saw mystic Babylon "drunk with the blood of the 
saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Had it been Rome pagan that 



332 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

was presented to view, John would not have wondered, with any great admiration! 
It was nothing more than what was expected from the hatred of such pagan empe- 
rors, and pagan soldiers. But there were two reasons why the apostle was over- 
whelmed with amazement. Here, before his eye, was a society, in name thristian^ 
^^ church of Christ :^^ — by its own avowal, "the only church of Christ," "drunk 
with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the mart3TS of Jesus !" And then, a 
sect, christian by its own avowal, yet more cruel, more unrelenting, more perse- 
vering in persecution, than the most relentless of the pagan powers ! " A church, call- 
ing itself the church of Christ," murdering its te7is of thousands for their religion, for 
every hundred, murdered in the pagan persecution ! 

This leads me to the Inquisition, and Persecution by the Romish church. 

I am, my Lords Bishops, yours &c. 
W. C. B. 



LETTER XXXVI. 



TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Cruelty an Essential Attribute of Popery. 

" Go to your bloody rites again — bring back 

The hall of horrors, and the assessor's pen 

Recording answers shrieked upon the rack ; 

Smile o'er the gaspings of spine-broken men; 

Preach — perpetrate damnation in j^our den ; 

Then let your altars, ye blasphemers! peal 

With thanks to heaven, that let you loose again 

To practice deeds with torturing fire and steel 

No eye may search, — no tongue may challenge, or reveal." 

Thomas Campbell, On the Inquisition. 

Reverend Fathers : — I am indebted for your patient attention to these investi- 
gations. But I am not indebted to you. Had I been in the land of Romish catho- 
licity, su'ch as your Spain, or Italy, I should likely, have had your company in the 
deepest dungeon of the inquisition ; and there have been pur!^uing my discussions on 
" the Beast," by the glare of the familiar's lurid torch : and b}- the judicious help of 
the torturer by fire and water, and the rack! Blessings on our cherished country! 
Blessings on our beloved republic! Tyranny, ghostly, or civil, cannot live, nor 
move, nor breathe here ! May it be so for ever ! And let the frost of death paralyze 
the tongue of the guilty traitor, who refuses to say, — Amen ! 

The sixth attribute of popery, is cruelty. This divides itself into two counts. 
It shows this infernal attribute by the Inquisition ; and by Persecution. 

Part First, — The Inquisition. — The Papacy, you know. Fathers, is a system 
which has ever had, for its object, unbounded power, amid the potentates of the 
earth. This has been its one great aim. The christian religion had the misfortune 
to be laid hold upon by it, merely as a pretext to gain power. Every man, — every 
tyrant has used one means, or another, to gain wealth and power. One man trades 
in gold and diamonds: another in baubles, and jugglery. The all absorbing aim of 
unprincipled men is one ; — namely, wealth and influence. One tyrant employs 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



333 



arms ; and boasts with Alexander, and the Romans, that he gives nations liberty and 
peace, after he has plundered, and desolated the land. Mohammed set up a new- 
religion, simply to gain power. If he could have bent to his purpose, the christian 
system, as successfully as the papacy, the Arabian impostor would have spared the 
infliction of the alkoran on the world. And he would have marched through seas of 
blood with the Bible, in the one hand, instead of the alkoran; and his scymetar, in 
the other. But the genius of his voluptuous Arabs, prevented this. The late empe- 
ror of France was a Jew with the Jews, a Protestant with the Protestants ; a Roman 
catholic when he compelled the infallible father, Pius VII, to crown him ; and a 
Mohammedan in Egypt! The truth is this, these men were atheists. And not one 
soul of them cared for the ivare in which he trafficed, if he only gained his ambitious 
object. Alexander, and the Romans, cared no more for "the liberty, or peace" of 
nations; or Napoleon for "islamism;" or the juggler for his baubles and tricks, or 
Mohammed for his alkoran, than the papacy, for the christian religion! Each 
tyrant has a design upon the species; each tyrant climbs to a crown by his own 
ladder : and his object gained, he is the first to kick it aside, as a thing never cared for 
of itself. 

The papacy gained its ascendency by chaining down the human intellect and con- 
science. To accomplish this, our ghostly tyrants seized upon the form of the christ- 
ian religion, the purest, and most holy, and only religion, vouchsafed to us from 
heaven ; and that which has the mightiest influence on the conscience, from its exhi- 
bitions of eternity, its reward, and its punishments. The pope usurps the throne of 
the Deity; and sitting in the temple of God, he deals out glory, and damnation, as he 
is in the humor. He erects a purgatory to make an easy way to heaven for evil men 
and knaves, and to create a revenue of money, wrung from the ignorant, guilty, and 
trembling wretch ! He deals out its " fires," "waters," its " steam-baths" to each 
culprit, in a charitable manner, and a charitable measure, just as he is able to pay. 
He takes heaven into his own hand; turns the Holy One away; places his Virgin 
Mary on the throne, and opens heaven, and sells glory, to the highest bidder, and the 
richest knaves ! 

All this enormity, which throws Satan's inventions in the dark pagan world, en- 
tirely into the shade, has poured in enormous revenues. All Europe, all ranks from 
the king to the beggar, were his tributaries. x\nd the priests, monks, and friars, and 
nuns were his tools and paunders; his militia; and his lax gatherers! And by his 
ghostly ware, and traffic in religion, he has gained more riches, and more power, 
than Mohammed did by his alkoran ; or Alexander by his Greeks ; or Csesar by his 
Romans ! 

Now, to consolidate this system, the pope knew that it was essential to check every 
thing like liberty of thought, and the rights of conscience. To get, and to keep pos- 
session of his revenues, he knew that he must keep the souls of all Europe, in chains. 

This he has labored to efl'ectby two prominent and truly satannic means. By the 
Index Ex pur gatorius, he keeps the Bible, and every valuable book from the subjects 
of his kingdom of darkness, and des|)otism. In other words, he employs ignorance, 
palpable as the darkness of Egypt, to chain man down. In this darkness he keeps 
men " from rising from their seats ;" and the gloom of their cells. The otlier wea- 
pon of hell is the Inquisition! "It is essential tosalvation," — that means, in other 
words, — " It is essential to his fleecing men of their liberty and property, that all 
men bo under the pope's power." — And the Inquisition may be defined, — That tri- 



334 



ROMA>' CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



I 



bunal, the joint invention of ttie devil, and the pope, whereby men are punished, in 
an exemplary, and, to the pope, a very lucrative manner; for the deadly sin of obey- 
ing their Maker, by exercising the faculties of their own souls; and thinking differ- 
ently from the Roman catholic religion i 

The Inquisition has three degrees in its rise, and progress. In the council of 
Verona, in 1184, Pope Lucius constituted each bishop f/ic Inquisitor, or "The heresy 
hunter," in his own diocess. 

But when those, whom the despot was pleased to call heretics, and who, in fact, 
were true and enlightened christians, rejecting with indignation the idolatrous svstem 
of popery, had increased in an incredible degree, the popes, in the beginning of the 
I3th century, in order to check them, sent delegates into these parts where his power 
was so unceremoniously i-rampled down. These sanguinary miscreants, such as 
Castelnau, and Dominic, preached down hereby. And their wretched sophisms utterly 
failing to make men of sense apostatise from christianit}', to popery, — tbey look on 
ihem, without the leave of bishop, or magistrate, to Inflict capital punishments upon 
their victims ! 

But the Inquisition was perfected in its terrific power, when the emperor Frederic 
ii, and Louis ix, sirnamed Saint Louis, king of France, lent their authority to esta- 
blish this tribunal : and when the magistracy was converted into a tool of the priests 
to enact legalized murders, on men, simply for their opinions in religion. Then 
Europe exhibited the novel and outrageous spectacle. — to use the words of Dr. Jortin, 
" of the priest being the judge, and kings the hangmen !" 

Such has, in fact, been the true relation of the crowned heads of Europe, and in- 
deed, of the magistracy, to the pope of Rome, and his sanguinary- army of priests. 
The pope having usurped unlimited power over every crowned head ; and these 
ignorant and effeminate animals, called kings, and emperors, having in their treach- 
ery to God, and their subjects, *' yielded up their power to the Beast," and lamely 
put their necks under his. heel, they became the pope's spies and hangmen.' Nay! 
the whole magistracy for several generations, became "the hangmen," of the Inqui- 
sition; and the royal armies, the hired executioners of whole provinces, and cities, 
in vast, and wide-spread massacres! All this was done at the nod of an upstart, 
and wretched priest, who succeeded in deceiving the world into a persuasion that he 
was a christian : and God's vicar general, in St, Peter's chair I Hence, we know how 
to reply to the papal sophistry, on the lips of priests, within Protestant lands, — " Our 
church inflicts no civil pains, the civil magistrate, alone, puts these criminals to 
death :" and " their blood is no more the blood of the saints, and martyrs, than the 
blood of thieves, man-killers, and other malefactors: for the shedding of which, by 
order of justice, no commonwealth shall answer." Rhemish Annot. Revel, xvii, 6» 

At the bidding of the pope, four edicts were issued by the emperor Frederick II. 
In the first he asserts, the divine right of kings " to wield the material sword, given to 
them separately from the priesthood, against the enemies of the faith, for the extirpa- 
ting of heretical pravity." "We shall not suffer," says he,'-^"the wretches to 
live, who infect the world with their doctrines." He then fixes the horrible punish- 
ment for heretics ; namely, — death in the most appalling forms, by rack, and fire, 
and sword : and their goods to be confiscated, their children to be disinherited^ and 
their memory, and their children, to be held infamous forever !" No heretic, that is a 
dissenter from popery, could make a will; nor receive any properly, by succession, 
or inheritance. Pope Innocent YIIL, in his edict of 1437, enacted that ^'catholics 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 335 

miglit seize upon, and possess the goods of heretics : that if bound to them by contract, 
it must not be fulfilled ; if indebted to them, they must not pay debts." William the 
Conqueror, in his devotion to Rome, enacted that "no man should buy, or sell, who 
refused allegiance to the apostolic see." And pope Alexander III. issued his bull 
that, — "No man should traffic with the Waldenses." And the council of Constance 
uttered their anathema "on all who should dare to enter into contracts, or engage in 
commerce with heretics." And the Inquisitors were the ministers of vengeance, charg- 
ed with the execution of these sanguinary laws. 

So completely did these enemies of God, and his church, fulfil, unconsciously, even 
to the letter, the prediction respecting antichrist, in Rev. xiii. 15, 16. " The image of 
the Beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image 
of the Beast, should be killed. And that no man might buy, or sell, save he that had 
the mark, or the name of the Beast !" 

Such were the origin and the laws of this infernal tribunal, which had, under 
Satan, pope Innocent III. for its founder, and one of the saints of the calendar, 
St. Dominic, for its earliest inquisitor. It was fully in operation in Ital}^, in 1251. 
It was gradually extended into other countries, and the executioners and tormentors in 
" The Holy Office," were always Dominican friars, a class of men destitute of the 
bowels of humanity ! 

In some countries, they never were able to establish this court, by all their efforts ; 
for instance, in England, Scotland, and Ireland. In France, it was forced on the 
people: but soon were the miscreants and their tribunal banished with indignation. 
In Germany, the exasperated people drove these minions of popery from their towns; 
and, more rigorous than the French in their law of retaliation, the first inquisitor, 
Conrad of Marpurg, was cut to ])ieces by the ungovernable populace. In Spain, and 
Portugal, "this scourge, and disgrace to humanity has, for centuries, glared like a 
monster, with its frightful aspect." At Rome it was generally most tolerant! For 
Rome acts on judicious principles. Gold and power are its only deity. And she 
knows that a rigid Inquisition would dry up the fountains of wealth poured in by 
strangers and travellers. In Europe, while each bishop's Inquisition is in full ope- 
ration, the Grand Inquisition is suspended in its operations. But it has never been 
condemned, not even disapproved of; and its crimes of murder and butchery have 
never been atoned for, never even deplored, by the papal church, in Europe, or the 
United States ! Hence, it is manifest that on each priest's head, who walks our 
streets, rest the atrocious guilt, and blood of the Inquisition, until he re])enls, and 
makes reparation to outraged human nature. But Holy Mother, and her })riests, 
never can repent of her deeds, as a church ; for in that case, she avouUI nduilt that she 
has been in error; and they would lose the caste oi^ infallibility ! 

The Inquisitorial /my took its rise out of the ignorance and brutality of the Domini- 
can monks. "They were entirely ignorant," as Mosheim justly remarks, "of all 
judicial proceedings, and sound law. They knew only the tribunal of penance ; 
where men testify against, mid for themselves. On this they modelled the laws of 
the ln(juisition." Hence these laws are " in many respects, contrary to the common 
feelingsof huirianlty ; and tlu; plainest dictates of e(]uity and jiistic(\" 

"The IiKjuisitor," exhibits tlie sp(>ciii!en of a human being, made in (iod's image, 
destitute of the least feelingsof Inimaniiy ; and a consumniai(> lui;i\e. He smiles on 
the most horrible torments of a IcUow being: the groans of bleeding, laccraled, and 
dying mortals, are the music of his dark cave; in which, far below the surface of the 



336 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

earth, in close dungeons, where the ear of man- cannot hear him, he practices his 
horrid vocation ; after the manner of his Lord and Master, in the dark regions 
below ! 

In Spain, where this tribunal triumphed in the reign of terror, over religion, morals, 
and bleeding humanity, there were eighteen ditferent Inquisitorial courts; with 
their apostolical Inquisitors. And besides the legions of officers in these hells, there 
were 20,000 familiars, dispersed over the land. These, with the cunning and malig- 
nity of the devil, mingled as spies, and informers, in all companies ; invaded the 
sanctity of families, and dragged all suspected persons to the cells of the Inquisition. 
They would come upon families, in noon da}', and at the midnight hour. They car- 
ried off the wife, and mother from the bosom of husband, and children. They singled 
out the blooming maid ; and the young man, the stay of his widowed mother; and 
the bride from the very circle of her gay friends ! The greatest virtues, and respect- 
ability in society, were no shield against these infernal invaders. Mere suspicion, or 
personal quarrel, or the glance of a voluptuous Inquisitor's eye on youth and inno- 
cence, were sure to send the horrid prison carriage at the dead hour of night, to the 
person's house, to carry the victim to this slaughter house of virtue, and tomb of the 
Hving. Such was the terror inspired by these incarnate devils, that the parent, and 
the brother would hurry, with trembling steps to tbe door. iVnd whenever the appal- 
ling words were heard, — " Open to the holy Inquisition ,•" — " Deliver up your wife, — 
deliver up your daughter, — deliver up your son, to the holy Inquisition ;'' — that in- 
stant would the terror-stricken relative, without daring to ask one question, or breathe 
one murmur, or even implore pity, lead the trembling victims out, and deliver them 
to these fiends ! The bereaved father, or husband would, next day, go into mourning: 
and speak of the dear lost one, — as no more! Gloom and melancholy were spread 
through the family ; aud the remains of hope were swallowed up in the bitterest 
despair. Even their tears, and their sorrows had they to conceal, lest they should 
be the next victims of ghostly suspicion. 

i\.nd with such pr: found secrecy did these familiars conduct their movements, 
that the members of the same family, would, in numerous instances, know nothing 
of one another's apprehension. Dr. Geddes states that a father, and three sons, and 
three daughters, living all in the same house, were carried prisoners to the Inquisi- 
tion, without knowing of one another's being there; until set-en years afterwards, 
when those of thera who had survived the horrid tortures, met at an Auto da Fe! 
There, after se?;ew years of weeping and despair, their eyes fell on each other, about 
to be consumed in the fire of the papists' grand human sacrifice ! See Dr. M. Geddes' 
Works on ^popery, vol. i. p. 392. 

As for the victims seized by the familiars, they were hurried into the dungeon cells, 
and loaded with chains. If females, they were placed in the harems of the sacerdotal 
monsters, who revel on the honor, the peace, and happiness of families; and subject 
them to disgraces worse than death, to the pure and virtuous! 

The prisoners were never confronted with the accusers, or informers. No witnesses 
were produced, and the basest of mankind are admitted as spies, and accusers. Even 
the crime alleged against them was not made known to them. They must make it out 
the best way they can, and confess their own crime. If they did not, they were put 
to the rack, and a confession extorted from them. "This procedure," says the his- 
torian Voltaire, "unheard of, till the Inquisition, makes all Spain tremble; suspicion 
reigns in all bosoms ; friendship, and quietness are at an end : brother dreads brother ; 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 337 

and father, his own son. Hence the taciturnity of a nation, endued with all the 
vivacity natural to a glowing and fruitful clime." Univ. Hist. vol. ii. ch. 138. Jones' 
Church Hist. vol. ii. p. 99. 

Let me conduct my reader into the interior of the Inquisition. I shall follow the 
guidance of the most approved authors, in their investigations of the "Infernal 
Tribunal." The exterior of the biiilding is sufficient to strike terror into the bosom 
of even tiie bravest man, who has always trodden the soil of freedom. The entran- 
ces are through long, dark, and winding passages; through ponderous doors : opened 
by massy keys, and clanking chains. The walls are black and filthy ; the flash of 
gleaming ton^hes reveals the sullen and taciturn officers, and familiars, whose coun- 
tenances retaining little of "the human face divine," frown an eternal scowl of ven- 
geance on all who have the misery of coming near them; while their eyes flash with 
the glare of the hidden fire, perpetually burning within their guilty, and horror- 
stricken souls ! The stoutest hearted cannot view them without honor! The tor- 
turing dungeons are so deep ; and the massy doors so close, that the groans, and the 
horrid shrieks of the tortured victims, cannot reach the air: or if perchance there 
ever came, — 

" So loud a shriek 

As reached the upper air, 
The liearers blessed themselves, and said, 
The spirits of the sinful dead 

Bemoaned their torments there !" 

Sir W. Scott. 

But if my reader can follow me, let me be more minute in detail. I shall describe, to 
the public, the torments which were of every day's occurrence. 

1st. The torture by ivater. The victim is laid on a table ; and tied down so tightly 
by cords, that they cut through the flesh into the bone, of his arms, thighs, and legs. 

The nostrils of the wretch are stuffed with a thick paste. A narrow filter is insert- 
ed in his mouth, through which quantities of water are poured. At every breath he 
is forced to swallow a mouthful of water, till at last his swollen stomach, and hea- 
ving breast, showed the extent of the torture he endures. He struggles fearfully to 
escape from his bondage, but his struggles are of no avail, except to increase the 
pangs he suffers. Nature, at length, is soon exhausted, and then these diabolical 
operations are suspended for a moment, and the sufferer is asked if he will confesss his 
crime. He cannot speak, bnt, with what little strength he has remaining, shakes his 
head. The torture is again put in force. Flask after flask of water is poured down 
the sufferer's throat, to force him to confess a crime, of which he is entirely innocent. 
This is often continued until the victim expires under his murderer's hands. 

There is another form of torture by water. The victims nostrils being closed with 
paste, a thin muslin cloth is put over his mouth ; and water poured in a current on 
it, until the cloth is actually carried down into his stomach! This is dragged up by 
his inhuman tormentors, with inexpressible pain, besides his continued danger of suf- 
focation. The victim often expires sooner, by this process, than by the other, just 
mentioned. 

2d. Torture by Fire. The victim is ])lace(l on (he floor, with his feet toward a 
blazing fire, his soles arc fixed near the red coals ; the fire is jdaccd along the whole"* 
length of his limbs. He is chained down by the neck and hands, to the floor. One 
of the familiars is continually cm})loyed in basting the poor christian's feet and legs 

30 



338 ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 

with lard and oil; while another tormentor is stir-ring up the fire into the intensest 
blaze! The torment is beyond conception ! His feet and limbs are literally roasted! 

Sometimes the fire has been applied in " the dry heat.''' The victim is put into a 
large vessel of iron or copper ; and the fire put beneath it ; and he is left beneath the 
lid, to the burning and suffocating air, — until he expire ; and his body is reduced to 
ashes. 

3d. Torture by the St. Mary. When the Inquisition was thrown open by the 
troopsof Napoleon, and king Joseph, in Spain, an image of the Virgin was found 
standing in a damp corner of a cell. On inspection, it vvas discovered by the French 
officer, to be a torturing engine ; as she had a metal breastplate, beneath her robes, 
stuck full of needles, spikes, and lancets ! The familiar was ordered '^ to manoeuvre 
it." He did so ; it raised its arms as if to embrace ; a knapsack was thrown into her 
arms; she gradually closed and crushed the knapsack, and pierced it in a hundred 
placfs, with deep cuts, each of which would have been a death's wound to the living 
victim ! 

4th. Torture of the Rack, By one form of this torment the victim is fixed to a post, 
and his arms are drawn back by great force until the shoulder joints are, each, dis- 
located. By another form, the rope is fixed, first above his elbows, then above his 
wrists, and he is hoisted suddenly to the lofty ceiling; then dropped with a sudden 
jerk near to the floor, until all the upper joints of his body, are dislocated ! If the poor 
christian refuses to confess, what he knows not, or refuses to become an apostate, then 
the ropes are fixed to his lower limbs, and he is hoisted up with his head downward; 
and let fall repeatedly, with excessive violence, until his ankle joints, and knee, and 
loin joints are all dislocated. And oh horrible! the whole weight of his body 
hangs, as it were, danghng upon the loose flesh, and sinews ! When the wretched 
man faints, he is hurried into his cell, and thrown on the cold damp floor! And if he 
jecovers underjhe surgeon's care, the same horrid tortures are enacted on him, from 
week to week, 'until he confess, — or expire in their hands ! These are only a portion 
of the tortures which have reached the public ear. There have been such "as eye 
hath not seen, and ear never heard." There has been no recorder of them. Besides 
who can register the tears, and groans, and agony of broken hearted human nature! 
But, Lord God ! Thou art just ; Thou art on thy judgment seat! And there is a doom 
to overwhelm the oppressor, and the inhuman butcher of thy innocent, and bleeding 
martyrs, O Lord Jesus ! 

5th. The Auto da Fe. This closes periodically, the tragedy of "the Infernal 
Tribunal." This sacrifice of Moloch, has always taken place on a Sabbath day. 
The prisoners are brought into a great Hall, where they are dressed for the proces- 
sion. The Dominicans, the master spirits of this pandemonium, march first, bearing 
the flag with the appropriate motto, — (for they characteristically unite mockery of 
human nature, to their savage barbarity.) '■'■Justice and mercy!'''' The penitents who 
escape, are dressed in black coats, without sleeves ; and they are marched barefooted. 
Next came those who have narrowly escaped, — dressed in black coats decked off 
with red figures of flames, top downwards. Next came the negative and relapsed, 
with red figures of flames curling upwards, on their dresses. These are to be strangled 
and burned. And, lastly, came our brethren, the dear devout Protestants and chris- 
tians, who abjured " the sectarian heresy of Popery,'''' and died for the gospel of Jesus. 
These had not only red figures of flames, but figures of open-mouthed dogs, serpents, 
and devils, covering their vestments I 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



339 



In their march to execution, our poor suffering fellow beings, and fellow christians 
are not even permitted to speak, or give utterance to their sorrows. A victim who 
had opposed the idolatry of the mass, and the worship of the wafer, and idol gods, 
exclaimed in an ecstacy, as he came out of his dungeon, and reached the open air, 
and saw the sun shining in all his glory, — a sight he had not seen in many years: — 
''^Hoiv is it possible for people that behold that glorious body, to ivorship any being 
hut Him who created it P' " Here," says Dr. Geddes," I saw him stopped short in his 
pious exclamations; and immediately gagged, so that he could not speak a word 
more!" See Dr. M. Geddes' Tracts on Popery, vol. i. p. 406. 

Arrived at the horrid Golgotha, and field of Moloch, a wretched declamation, 
called a sermon, is uttered by some hypocritical Jesuit, or a half witled but savage 
Dominican, in praise of the " Holy Inquisition," and the devout servants of God, " the 
Inquisitor'''' and all " these skilful tormentors'''' of our fellow beings. This being done, 
sentence is passed on each class; and the two classes appointed to be burned, are de- 
livered over formally to the civil magistrate ; while the reckless hypocrites, — the 
Inquisitor and his minions, " beg, and implore the magistrates not to take their lives ; 
not to kill them; not to burn them; but tu spare them ! P' This mockery of God and 
human nature, being enacted, the penitents are dismissed ; — the relapsed who die in 
Romanism, are first strangled, and then burned. This is all their privilege, — they 
are frst strangled ! But the faithful christians who persevere in Christ's cause, are 
chained on a high stake, many feet above the piles of faggots. Here two Jesuits again 
inflict on each martyr a long and whining exhortation, to repent, — and die in the Ro- 
man faith, and receive the tender mercy of Holy Mother: — namely the benefit of 
being strangled, and then burned. This mockery enacted by these inhuman priests, 
the loud scream is uttered — at the nod of the Inquisitor, — " Let the dog's beards be 
made /" Instantly blazing torches and furze on long poles, are dashed on the faces of 
the agonizing martyrs; and this is continued until their faces are burned to a cinder ! 
Then the flames are applied below, and the roaring flames ascend, and slowly con- 
sume the sufferers to ashes ! And to crown the whole, — at the bidding of the Inquisitor, 
and the example of all the priests, this horrid tragedy is enacted amid the peals of 
laughter, and shouts of exultation, and merriment, from ten thousand beings actually 
calling themselves men, — and women — and christians! ! And yet, no people in Eu- 
rope, perhaps show more kindly feelings, or deeper sympathy with the sufferings of 
common criminals, dying for any crime against the civil laws ! Such is the sa,vag"e 
and ferocious influence of popery and priestcraft, in these countries. It actually ren- 
ders man not only insensible to the feelings of humanity, but absolutely inhuman 
toward his brother man. No scene in the worship of Moloch; none, in the horrid 
rites of Juggernaut; none, among oiir savage Indians around a captive warrior's 
murderous fire, when he is put to death by their ingenious tortures, has ever equalled 
the scenes of torture ia the the interior of the Inquisition, and the closing tragedies of 
the Auto da Fe ! And yet, — O most outrageous mockery! All this has been enacted 
from age to age, under the name of the holy and benignant religion of .Tesus Christ, 
Even that religion which breathes nothing but love to man: which prohibits all vio- 
lence, and even compulsion in religion: which declares tliat even "the man who 
hates his brother is a murderer."' By the voice of this holy and peaceful religion 
what must the Roman catholic priests be, who sing psalms, chaunt the mass, aud 
butcher mankind by hundrel- of thousands in cold blood ! 

The aumber of the victims of the Inquisition will never be known, until the day of 



340 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



final retribution. Various have been the numbers set down. "Authors of undoubt- 
ed credit," says Jones, — " have affirmed, and without any exaggeration, that mill- 
ions of persons have been ruined by his horrible court. Moors were banished from 
Spain, a ?«i//ion at a time! From six to eight hundred thousand Jews were driven 
away from it, at once ; and all their property seized." Jones' Ch. Hist. ii. p. 98. 

In Spain, alone, the numbers who suffered in the extreme, are thus set down by 
Lorente in his late history of the Spanish Inquisition ; Pans Edit. 1818. Tom. iv. 
p. 271. ' 

"It is the Inquisition which has ruled in Spain," says he, "from the year 1481, to 
the present day, of which I undertake to write the history." Tom. i. p. 140. 
Recapitulation of all the victims condemned and burnt .... 33,912 

Burned in effigy, 15,695 

Placed in a state of penance with rigorous punishments, , . . 291,450 



Total 341,057 

This number fixed on by this unusually accurate historian, is far below the truth. 
It is generally admitted that under the first Inquisitor of Spain alone, namely Tor- 
quemada, no less than 100,000 human beings suffered : under the above three 
classes, that is, they were burned ; or they perished on the rack, or by it ; or in exile; 
and perpetual confinement I 

This, Rev. Fathers, is enough at one time, in all conscience, for your, or any man^s 
digestion ; you will, therefore, accord me the boon of pausing a while. 

I am, my Lords Bishops, yours &c. 

W. C. B. 



LETTER XXXVII. 



TO THE LOKD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOUC 
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Cruelty an Essential Attribute of Popery. 



Thus Beelzeb-flb 



Pleaded his devilish counsel, first devised 
By Satan, and in part proposed : for whence 
But from the author of all dl, could spring 
So deep a malice J' MiLTaN. 

Reverend Fathers: — The tribunal of the Inquisition, bloody as it was, never- 
theless was too slow, in its exterminating process for the sanguinary zeal of the papal 
priests. Besides the arm of civil power was found to be neeessaty in some countries, 
where neither Moloch, nor Satan, nor even the pope himself could establish " The 
Infernal Tribunal!" Hence the summary process ofcrtcsades^ and massacres. This 
conducts me to, — 

Part II. — Persecution. 1. Of tJte Crusades we may reckon two kinds» The 
one maybe termed morah and besides violence and outrage, it included the resort 
to every species of treachery, deception, and cunning, which power and Jesuitisia 
could employ, to bring men over to Romanism, from the christian religion. As spe- 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 341 

cimens of this, I reckon that violence, and those diabolical artifices employed to 
sinderrnine the ancient apostolical churches of Britain, Spain, and Ireland; and 
spread the horrid impostures of popery over them, — which to this day, enchain the 
greater part of the latier two : and that ferocious system of moral and civil persecu- 
tion which wasted Hungary, and crushed three rnillions of Protestants, for three 
hundred years ; and closed, in a measure, only with the life, and reign of Maria 
Theresa. 

The other species of Crusade was wholly of a sanguinary nature. The papal 
bearers o( the cross, their insignia, went forth to butcher, in cold blood, rpan, woman, 
infant, — who were not Romans ; and cover whole kingdoms with blood, and fire, and 
havoc! Of this kind, were the crusades against the Moors and Jews in Spain; the 
Waldenses and Albigenses; and the infidels in the Holy Land. These specimens 
of wild and infernal mania, were exhibited solely by the ambition and blood-thirsty 
cruelty of the popes. The last, in the Holy Land, commenced in the year 1096, and 
it raged, with fury, for two centuries; causing, according to Mons. Voltaire, the death 
of two millions of men, in the flower of their youth : and ill prepared, we fear, to 
meet their Judge. For the blood, and for the souls of these niillions of human be- 
ings, has the Romish church, one day, to give an account to Almighty God. 

2. That the Roman catholic church has been avowedly a ferocious, persecuting 
sect, is frankly admitted by her standard writers. And that persecutions have been 
carried on, over entire nations, by wholesale, is triumphantly avouched also ; and 
even gloried in, as exhibiting a notable mark of "the holy and only church." And 
just in proportion as her temporal power, was united, in adulterous connection, with 
the spiritual, have the friends of blood and havoc been born and nursed by popery, 
and turned loose in their unmuzzled ferocity, on the bleeding nations of the earth ! 

We conceal not that Protestants have persecuted, even unto death. We deplore the 
existence of that civil law by which the magistrates of Geneva, with Calvin consent- 
ing, did doom the unhappy Servetus to death. We deplore the scenes enacted in 
Protestant Britain; and the cruelty to some members of the society of Friends, in the 
early days of New England. 

But, we beg all men, Jew, infidel, and christian, to render justice to the Protestant 
world ; and mark the radical difference in this matter. There is no doctrine, — no, 
not one idea in the Holy Bible, — nor in the Protestant creeds, and canons, that teach- 
es, or invites, or even insinuates a wish to persecute. It is an affecting truth that 
*'cvil communications corrupt good morals!" Our first Protestant Fathers were 
nursed, and brought up in Popery. It is mortifying to reflect that they drank in the 
persecuting spirit, from the breasts of "Holy Mother." That savage lioness taught 
men to hunt the prey; and revel in hun)an blood! And^ when they escaped from 
her den, and her devilish training, it took many a long age to eradicate from their 
bones, and marrow, this king's evil,, — this popish mania! Moreover, the civil laws 
of each kingdom were corrupted, and poisoned by popery. Intolerance and persecu- 
tion were enacted in the statute books of all the kingdoms of Europe. The magis- 
trates of Geneva and .Tohn Calvin did not enact that bloody law, under which Serve- 
tus suffered. The Romish laymen and priests enacted it! The Protestants did not 
enact the intolerant laws of England: the Romish church enjoined the ])riest-ridden 
kings of that realm to enact them. N;iy, so far did Rome carry her [)ersccuting 
power, even in defiance of the crown of England, that by a law passed under Henry 
IV., a bishop could convict the subjects of heresy; and, *' unless the convict abjured 

30* 



342 ROMA>- CATHOLIC COVTROVERST. 

his opinions, or if, after abjuration, he relapsed, the sheriff vras bounc, ex officio, if 
required hy the bishop, to commit the man lo the flames, without uaiting for the con- 
sent oflhe crown /" See Blackstone's Com. vol. iv., Book 4, c. 4, Sect. 2. 

No vronder, therefore, that it took years, and incredible labors to purify the foiint- 
ains. and. streams from the pope's unr^'ersal corrosive poison I 

When, therefore, a Protestaoi 'persecutes, he acts against the pnre precepts of the 
Bible, and against all the solemn articles and canons of his holy religion. And, 
now, no Protestant church persecutes; and the longer, and the farther removed we 
are from the popish sect^ the more completely is the demon of persecution expelled 
from every cbnrch, and every family, and every soul, and heart I But persecution 
is taught as a dogma, and a regular canon, by the pope and all his priests ! No bloody 
edict has been revoked : they are suspended in the pope'sold paralytic, and withered 
hand: but never have they been revoked. And never has a breath of disavowal, 
or even disapprobation gone forth against the persecutions enacted by her. The 
Roman catholic church persecutes by canon and rule I She cannot even repent of 
her persecutions. She would inflict a death wound in her own heart, did she disa- 
vow bloody persecution I For. to retrace her steps, and repent, is to abandon her 
promimnt attribute of infalHbiliti/ .' 

In proof of our assertion, I shall, ^rsf, give your standard authorities, that the 
Romish church makes persecution an essential, unrepealed dogma of her religion: — 
and, second, illustrate this dogma by her uniform practice. In other words, I shall 
show that she makes it a principle of conscience to persecute by the sword of her 
mouth ; and by the secular sword. And this, I beg leave to remind you, Fathers, is 
according to the letter of the prediction of St. John, relative to this "'bloody Beast." 
Revelation xiii. 5, &c. " And there ^ras given unto the Beast, a mouth speaking 
great things, and blasphemies ; and power was given unto him to continue fortj^ and 
two months : and he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God ; to blaspheme his 
name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given to him 
to make war with the saints: and to overcome them " 

First: — She persecutes by the sicord of the mouth. This divides itself into two 
forms of ferocious assault. 1st. Byher brutal mode of cnrsingand excommunicating. 
In addition to the specimen already given, I shall subjoin a form of what is more 
common in her discipline. The model is that which was uttered by the pope against 
his Alum maker, for his eloping from his Alum works; and carrying the chemical 
secret to England. I copy it from Ledger BooJc of Rochester church: and Henry 
vSpelman's Glossary, p. 206. And from Prof. Bruce's Free Thoughts: Dr. 
_M'Culloch's Popery condenined: and Glasg, Prot. vol. i. ch. 5. I abridge it thus : — 

"May God the Father curse him I 3Iay God the Son curse him! 31ay the 
Holv Ghost cmrse him I May the holy Cross curse hiin ! May the holy and eternal 
Virgin Mary curse him ! May St. Michael curse him I May John the Baptist 
curse him ! May St. Peter, and St. Paul, and St. Andrew, and ail the Apostles, 
and disciples, curse him I May all the mart^TS and confessors curse him ! May all 
the saints, from the beginning of time, to everlasting, curse him I 3ray he be cursed 
in the house, and in the fields ! May he be cursed -while living, and while dying! May 
he be cursed in sitdng, in standing, in h-ing, in walking, in workmg, in eating, in 

drinking, in mingendo. in May he be cursed in all the powers of his body; 

within, and without. May he be cursed in the hair of his head, in his temples, eye- 
brows, his forehead, his cheeks, and his jaw-bones, his nostrils, his teeth, his lips, his 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVKTISY. 



343 



throat, his shoulders, his arms, his wrists, his hands, his breast, his stomach, his 
reins, * * * * his legs, his feet, his joints, his nails ! May he be cursed from the 
crown of his head, to the sole of his feet! May heaven, and all the powers therein, 
rise against him to damn him ; unless he repent, and make satisfaction ! Amen." 

2. Her doctors conspire against the human race, by strenuously advocating the 
principles of persecution. 

Bellarmine, De Laicis, Lib. iii. cap. 21., is your church's sovereign mouth-piece. 
He gives a labored defence of the principle of persecution ; or the putting of heretics 
to death, merely for differing from "Holy Mother," in their religious creed! Here 
are his words : — "Posse hereticos, &c. That heretics condemned by the church, 
may be punished with temporal penalties, and even with death. We will briefly 
show that the church has the power, and it is her duty, to cast oif incorrigible here- 
tics, especially those who have relapsed, and that the secular power ought to inflict 
on such, temporal punishments, and even death itself." 

Then follows a long list of painful arguments in defence of these ferocious dogmas ; 
which a christian cannot read without shuddering! He argues from the holy Bible 
of the God of mercy : from civil law ; canon law; the Fathers; and from reason! 
This last argument is curious: it is this, — It is a henejit to the heretic, to be sent out of 
the world, as soon as possible. For the longer he lives, the worse he becomes ; and if 
he is soon sent off, his hell will be so much lighter ! 

Thus the cardinal "deals damnation round the land" on all who differ from you : 
and with a singular species of popish compassion, he is for hurrying all heretics 
speedily to death; and into hell, in order to make it a little less intolerable ! 

In chap. 22, Bellarmine answers objections. Luther had taught " that the church 
of God had never, from the beginning, to his time, burned a heretic : that it was not 
the mind of the Holy Spirit, that they should be burned." Here is the reply of this 
cardinal in the name of all popery, — 

" I reply, this argument admirably proves not the sentiment, but the ignorance, or 
impudence of Luther: for as almost an injinite number were either burned; or other- 
wise put to death, Luther either did not know it, and was therefore ignorant ; or, if he 
knew it, he is convicted of impudence and falsehood ! For that heretics were often 
humed by the church, may be proved by adducing a few from many examples." 

" Argument second. Experience shows that terror is not useful in such cases. " I 
reply," says Bellarmine, " that experience proves the contrary — for the Honatists, 
Manicheans, and Albigenses were routed, and annihilatedby arms.'''' 

Such, also, is the doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas, ii. 11. iii. p. 58. " Ilaeretici 
possent, &.C. Heretics may not only be excommunicated, but justly killed.'^ 

And all this is not the doctrine of such intolerant cardinals, and blood thirsty sai7its 
only. Even Bossuet, all politeness, and all accommodation as he affected to be, in 
his bigotry, advocated intolerance, and persecution. Speaking of the power of the 
sword in matters of religion, he says, — " Itcannot be called in question, witliout weak- 
ening, or maiming the public authority, or power. No illusion can be more dange- 
rous than making toleration a mark of the true church." "No," adds he, — "the 
church's holy severity, and her holy delicacy, forbad her such indulgence, or rather 
softness!" Boss. Oeuvres, Tom. iii. p. 411. Paris, 1747. 

But we ascend to higher authority. No pope since the beginning of the 8lh cen- 
tury can be named, who condemned, or even disap])r()ve(l of porscM-ution ! Popes 
Urban, Innocent III., and VIII. , Clement, Ilonorius, and Martin, carried out their 



344 KoMAN catholic COPiTROVERSl. 

avowed dogmas ; and were ferocious patrons of extennination ! Urban II. sirnamed 
The Turbuknt, in A. D. 1090., declared in his Bull, — " That no one is to be deemed 
a murderer, who, burning wnth zeal for the interests of Moilier church, shall kill 
excommunicated persons." See Pithou, corjius Jur. canon, p. 324, Paris Edit. 
1687. It is true, Bruys, speaking of him, calls his morals "diabolical and infernal." 
Hist. Des. Papes, Tom. ii. p. 508. But then, he was no worse than his successors, 
who faithfully copied his maxims against heretics. 

We have the decisions of National Councils enjoining the extermination of heretics, 
such as that of Toleda, Tours, Oxford, Narbona, and Tolosa. See Edgar's Varia- 
tions, p. 244. That of Tolosa was pre-emineiit in its fury ; and what is striking, it 
waged war against the Holy Bible also. "No layman was permitted on the penalty 
of heresy, to have the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments in his vernacular 
idiom." This was enacted in 1229 : and has never to this hour been repealed. See 
Labbeus, vol. xiii. p. 1239. Alexand. His. Eccles. vol. xx. p. 668. 

And what is more, we have the decisions, and the recorded practice of the General 
Councils, namely, Third of the Lateran, and the Fourth of the Lateran, in 1215. 
In canon iii. De hereticis, it enacted, — '• Let secular powers, — if necessary, be com- 
pelled by church censures, — to endeavor, in all good faith, according to their power. 
to dtstroy all heretics (Protestants.) marked hy the church, out of the lands of their 
Jurisdiction.'' It then proceeds to enact that if princes refuse to cut off, and destroy 
heretics, "they shall be accursed, and their subjects absolved from their allegiance." 
I refer to Labb. Tom. xiii. 934: Bruy's Hist. Pap. Tom. iii. p. 148. 

The council of Constance was fullv a match to this, in Satanic severity, and 
blood-thirstiness. It was convoked in 1414. The pope, 3Iartin V., presided in this 
assembly. They not only condemned, and burned alive, the holy martyrs Huss, 
and Jerome of Prague : but issued thsir terrific anathema against the millions of 
heretics over all Europe : and commanded all emperors, kings, and princes dutifully 
to proceed, forthwith, in their extermiQation, by fire and sword. And the decrees of 
this council were applauded, and confirmed by the last council of your church, — the 
council of Trent, which lent it all the authority which it gave to any dogma of your 
church. «• 

So late as 1825, the late pope Leo XII. exhibhed the sentiments of Rome in our 
day. In his Bull of a jubilee, he makes two conditions of the faithful "receiving a 
plenar}' indulgence, and pardon of all sins;" namely, — "the exaltation of the holy 
Mother church, and the extirpation of heresy.'' 

So avowedly is this a dogma of the Romish church, that it is introduced into the 
class book of the college of Mayuooth, in Ireland : and every candidate for the priest- 
hood is painfully taught it. Here is the sentiment I allude to : — "the church retains 
its power over all heretics, &c. ; although they may no longer belong to its body : as 
a general has a right to inflict punishment on a deserter.''' That is, as we all know, 
capital punishment. See Delahogue^s Tract. Theolog. cap. 8. De 3Iembris : p. 404., 
Dublin Edit. 1795. 

"In fine, I have only to lay before the American public, one extract from the oath 
which every Romish bishop must swear before he is consecrated. I beg my readers 
attention to it. "I swear, — that heretics and schismatics, and rebels to our Lord, the 
Lord pope, or his successors, I will to the extent of my power, persecute and heat 
down : pro posse persequar et impugnabo. — So help me God, and the holy gospels of 
God." See Pontif. Rom. De consec. Eiec. Episcop. p. 57. Hence, every Romish 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



345 



bishop must, by soleran oath, be a persecutor. He has no other choice. If he is 
liberal and gracious to heretics, and does not persecute them as far as he can, then is 
he a deliberately perjured man ! ! 

Nothing, therefore, is more obvious than this, — that the principle of tolerance and 
liberality, is not at the choice of any Romish priest, or subject of the Roman court. 
Intolerance and persecution are as essential, necessary, and integral a dogma of 
popish faith, and practice, as is the mass, or the papal supremacy! ! 

And I call on every patriot, and every christian in the United States, and beg their 
attention to this fact, — that every one of the popish clergy in Europe, and in our 
Republic, profess, upon their great and solemn oath on the cross, and holy sacrament, 
to receive, obey, and practice, this principle of persecution., that has thus received the 
sanction of the vi^hole Romish church; and has been marked, as Edgar says, with 
the sign manual oHnfallihility ! And this principle they will reduce to practice, 
under pains of perjury, as soon as they can gain the ascendancy, in our Republic! 
Then will return the days of the reign of the bloody Queen Mary. Then will be 
the new reign of Terror, by the fire and the faggot, and the horrid Inquisition, in our 
once free and happy land ! It is for this that the sons of St. Dominic long and pray! 
It is for this the Jesuits are toiling over our country! It is for this object the Roman 
catholic powers of Europe are expending such large sums annually, and pouring in, 
upon us, myriads of the pope's household troops ! 

I am, Rev. Fathers, yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



LETTER XXXVIII. 



TO THE LORD ARCHBISHOP, AND THE LORDS BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 
CHURCH, IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Ferocious Cruelty an Essential Attribute of Popery. 

" I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored Beast: she was arrayed in purple and scarlet: 
and I saw lier drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
Jesus." — St. John. 

Reverend Fathers: — The patience with which you have been pleased to listen 
to my exhibitions, shows at least, this much, that you feel deeply on the subject. I 
now invite your attention to it for the last time. 

Second, and last: — These principles of persecution, which are peculiar, and essen- 
tial to the Roman catholic religion, have been, with scrupulous fideliiy, reduced to 
practice, in innumerable terrific instances. 

The persecutions of the Waklenses, and Albigenses, — the genuine successors of the 
ancient apostolic /iaZicAr c/iwrc/j,, after the church of Rome began her fatal a[)ostacy, 
have been regular, and protracLed from generation to generation. Pope Innocent III. 
succeeded in calling into the field 500,000 warriors against tlu in I France alone 
brought 200,000 men as her share. The carnage on both sides, was appalling, for 
the Waldcnses defended themselves. Tlie leader of the persecutors was I'hirl Mont- 
ford ; and his name will pass down witli deeper, and deeper iidainy, as truth j)revails» 
and history wields her im|)artial ])en. 

When the city of Beziers was taken by the crusaders, in 1209, the Albigenses were 



346 



ROMA!f CATHOLIC CONTROTERST. 



SO mixed with the papists, in the inele of battJe.'that the warriors did cot know theif 
G\^Ti. ''Kill ally'' cried the papal missionary Arnauld, '-and God will know his 
oicn !" Seven hundred christians were slain by the papists in one church; 6U.00O 
perished, in ail ! This last is the number set down by 3Iezerev and Velly : Edgar p. 
252. When the city Lavaur was taken, the governor and his lady were cruelly 
murdered : SO gentlemen were slaughtered in cold blood ; 4(J0 christians were burned 
alive ; and all the rest of the citizens indiscriminately put to the sword ! Velly, 
vol. iii. 441. 454. 

TMieu Languedoc was invaded by these monsters, or?e Jiundred thousand Albigenses 
fell in one day ! See Bruys, vol. iii. 139. Houses were burned, females violated, 
towns, and cities laid in smouldering ruins. Gallantlv did the brave christians defend 
themselves : and some idea of their havoc may be conceived, before they were exter-., 
minated, from the fact, that 300,000 crusaders fell dead on the plains of Languedoc I " 
And for the blood of each one of these is the Roman catholic church accountable to 
God : as well as for that of the christians ! For she brought the war. 

But who can travel in minute detail, over the lands visited by the demon of popish 
intolerance and persecution? Who can follow him in his butcheries of Moors. Jews, 
and Christians in Spain and Portugal, in the times of Charles Y., and his son Phihp ! 
What must have been the carnage of the commons, when this king witnessed an Auto 
da Ft. ia which 2S Spjnish nohUs, were burned at the stake, before him, all at one 
time! 

What man has yet conceived the agonies, and bloodshed of the christians who fell in 
Spain. Portugal, and Italy, before the demon of poper;/ succeeded in extinguishing 
the Reformation, in the sixteenth century ? 

Who can follow the demon of popish intolerance and persecution, over the plains, 
and mountains of Bohemia ? What tongue can tell the horrors of popish persecution 
inflicted on three milhons of christian Hungarians, during no less than three 
centuries ? 

Who can conceive the horrors of the French massacre at Merindol. at Grange ! 
Wlio can conceive the infinite horrors of the St. Bartholomew massacre, at Paris! 
"The streets," says a popish historian, — "were paved with dead bodies, and the 
mortally wounded; the gateways were literally choked up with them. There were 
heaps of them in the squares: the small streams were filled with human blood, which 
flowed in great torrents to the river. Six hundred houses were repeatedly pillaged." 
See3Iezerai, Hist. De France, Tom. ii. p. 109S. Paris Edit. 1646. 

Similar massacres were continuously enacted, at the same time, at 3Ieaux ; at 
Troyes: at Orleans; atNevers: at La Charite : at Toulouse ; atBourdeaux: at 
Lyons 1 France was drenched in the blood of Huguonot christians, in the reign of 
Charies IX. 1 

Wliat pen has ever, yet, done justice to the sufferings, and barbarous slaughter ol 
the French christians, under Louis XIV., when that odd compound of relisrious 
fcjgotry, and savage ferocity, revoked the edict of Nantz; and drove a nation of Pro- 
testants to the gibbet, the dungeon, and perpetual exile ! 

What hand has yet delineated the horrid scenes of war, and massacre, by the 
Duke of Alva, on the plains of Holland I What history has yet recorded all the 
sufferings of British christians; the sorrows, and deaths of the Wickliffiies, and Lol- 
lards. andCuldees. and Protestants .' 

What tonsuehas ever vet told the tale of the christian church's sufferings, in Ir^ 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY, 



347 



land, previous to her being over-run by popery, in the close of the twelfth century : 
and of her Protestant children of later days, by assassinations, and the most revolting 
Irish massacres ! Her sighs, her groans, and tears, and blood have never been re- 
corded on earth. They are known only to the Most High : they are recorded in the 
book of divine remembrance alone ! 

Now, nothing is more evident on the page of history, than this fact, that all these 
persecutions, and massacres were done at the instigation, and by the command of the 
popes. They never concealed it : they actually gloried in it. To use the disgusting 
cant of papal hypocrisy, — " It was all in the way of purifying the nations from 
heresy ; and of extending the Catholic religion!" The Letter of Pius V., is yet ex- 
tant, in which he stirred up Charles to the Parisian massacre. See Finch's Rom. 
Controv. p. 140. And several historians, Roman catholics, record the rejoicings at 
Rome, by pope Gregory Xlll. This mournful, and atrocious, and national murder 
of Protestants, was celebrated at Rome with extreme pomp. The pope led the way 
in savage exultation; and solemnly offered thanks to God for the massacre of the 
Huguonots ! A medal was struck to commemorate this victory over humanity, and 
the christians of France; an engraved, London fac-simile of which is in my posses- 
sion. The literary Roman catholic can see a perfect description of it in Bonanni's 
Nummismata Pontiff. Rom. Tom. i. p. 336 ; Rome, 1699. 

Besides this, every one who has seen the paintings in the Vatican, must have seen 
three pictures, got up, and exhibited for centuries to commemorate this massacre. The 
first exhibits the admiral Coligny mortally stabbed : the second, the admiral butchered 
in his house, with all his family : the third exhibits king Charles IX., approving 
the massacre ! 

In order to enable you to form some faint idea of Roman catholic persecutions, I 
shall set down the following estimate of the numbers that have fallen vic'ims to the 
intolerance, and sanguinary religion of Rome. And I beg leave here to introduce it 
with the remark, that had the pope, or a council, or the Romish church ever seen fit 
to disavow, and lament over these wholesale, and national murders, and massacres,— 
those in that communion should never have heard one reproachful word : — never 
have met one charge of persecution and murder, from us. But Rome has never dis- 
avowed the principle; never condemned, nor protested against the blood-guiltiness of 
these massacres, by their pope ; and their forefathers. Hence that church, like every 
other incorporate body, is chargeable with the debt of that bloodshed ; as really as if 
they had been aiders, and abettors, and the most manifest accomplices ! If you. Fa- 
thers, or any one in your communion, have ever disavowed this dogma of your 
church ; or condemned her former persecutions, by any act, or decUration whatever, 
show us the bull, or the edict. I here challenge all your literary men to produce 
any disavowal, or one solitary confession authorized by the pope, or church of Rome, 
in opposition to the principle, or practice of persecution. 

Here, then, before God and man, I do most solemnly charge on you, F^uhcrs, and 
all those in open communion with your persecuting churcli, this blood guiltiness 
which has ever rested on her ! 

There perished under pope Julian 200,000 christians: and by the French massacre, 
on a moderate calculation, in 3 uioutljH, 100,000. Of the Waldcnses there ]ierished 
150,000 ; of the Albigenses 150,000. Tliere perished by the Jesuits in 30 years only, 
900,000. The Duke of Alva destroyed by the common hangman alone, 36,(00 per- 
»0D8; the amount murdered by him issetdown, by Grotius, at 100,000! There per- 



348 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 



ished by the fire, and tortures of the Inquisition m Spain, Italy, and France, 150,000. 
This does notinclude the exiled, those confined for life : aod those who died in conse- 
quence of hard usage, after they had escaped. In the Irish massacres, in which w^ere 
displayed all the horrid arts, and tortures of the Spanish iDquisition, there perished 
150,000 Protestants! Besidesthose who were burned in bloody Queen Mary's time, 
or who died on the scaffold, — 22,000 were driven into exile, after losing their all. 

To sum up the whole, the Roman catholic church has caused the ruin, and destruc- 
tion of a million and a half of Moors in Spain ; nearly two millions of Jews, in Europe! 
In Mexico, and South America, including the islands of Cuba and St. Domingo, 
fifteen millions of Indians, in 40 years, fell victims to ipopery. And in Europe, and 
the East Indies, and in x\merica, 50 millions of Protestants, at least, have been mur- 
dered by it ! 

Thus the church of Rome stands forward before the world, "the woman in scarlet, 
on the scarlet colored Beast!" A church claiming to be christian, drenched in the 
blood of sixty-eight millions^ and Jive hundred thousand human beings! And, horrible 
as this is, what is all this guilt, and overwhelming damnation, compared to the infinite 
guilt of her seducing, and sacrificing, if grace prevented it not, — the souls of hundreds 
of millions of her victims, on the altar of Moloch, and of dooming them, so far as 
her fatal influence can go, to the pains of the second, and never-ending death ! 

Can any christian, in the sober exercise of reason, conceive this sanguinary power, 
to be a branch of Christ's pure and holy church ! 

Can any politician believe that such principles can make their votaries good and 
orderly citizens ! 

Does not outraged humanity utter its execrations of these tenets, in the deepest 
tone of irrepressible indignation; and pronounce the Roman catholic church the pre- 
destinated son of perdition: and the ivorst enemy, on earth, of the human race! — 
Rev. Fathers, you can answer this, if you will permit j'our consciences to utter their 
unrestrained response. But, whether you will answer it, or not, here, — you must 
answer it at the bar of eternal justice, soon. And there is no concealment, no eva- 
sion there ! 

And, now. I have done. I appeal from you, in your present delusion, and mortal 
error, to you, as you shall see, and feel, — when at the bar of God's eternal justice! 
There I shall meet you; and you will meet me, before my judge, and your judge! 
And thereupon, I appeal you, and your predecessors in office, of your guilty deeds 
against God's holy cause, and saints, to answer for them, before God's judgment 
seat ! 

It will be known there, at the bar of Christ, in the light of eternity, whether your 
cause, or our cause, was the cause of God, and of our country ! And whether, or 
not, our ancestors, massacred by the Roman catholic church, were the saints and 
martyrs of God ! 

To my Divine Master I humbly dedicate these Letters : imploring his pardon for 
any thing that is wrong in them; and his blessing on whatever is proper, and useful, 
in them, to vindicate His gospel, and His royal honor, and prerogatives against the 
grand rebel, and usurper ! 

Farewell, Rev. Fathers, I have spoken plainly, because I am on a perfect fooling 
of equality with you, — occupying as high a rank of office in the Protestant Reformed 
church, as you do in the Roman catholic church ! I have spoken boldly, — because I 
am a free man, and no Romish slave ! I have spoken often indignantly, — yet I trust 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY. 349 

in charity, — because I have been rebuking an intruding foreign power; an audacious 
conspirator against the liberties of our repubUc ; — a cold-blooded usurper ; who has 
taken the crown from ?Ae head of Him, "on whose head are many crowns:" and 
who has trampled the gospel, audits ordinances under his feet: and who has out- 
raged the feelings of humanity : and who has taught high treason, and sown discord 
in every nation in Europe, in South jf^merica, and Mexico: and who has excited 
almost every war in all these lands, from time immemorial; and who has deluged 
the earth with the blood of the martyrs of Christ ; and the martyrs of patriotism, for 
their country's cause ! 

Reverend Fathers, farewell forever! We part, to meet no more again, until we 
mieet, front to front, at the judgment seat of iilmighty God ! One of your number has 
gone to his account, since I first wrote these Letters. I do humbly pray that the rich 
grace of God may be given to each of you who survive; to rest on you; to guide 
you into all truth ; and, finally, conduct you into the mansions of glory ! Amen. 

I am. Reverend Fathers, yours, &c. 
W. C. B. 



A CARD. TO THE PUBLIC. 

I now retire from the field of the Roman catholic controversy : because it is proper 
to stop, when one is done. I have kept possession of the field, undisputed, by any 
priest, for the last six months. But, I retire with an assurance, in the words of Mc- 
Gavin, — -that I am ready to return to the discussion, at an hour's notice, if any moral, 
regular, and respectable popish priest shall choose to renew the contest. 

I tender my affectionate regards to Mr. Vandewater, and Mr. S. E. Morse, and to 
all those editors who have published the first edition of these Letters: and to all 
those distinguished christians, and politicians, who kindly sustained me, and cheered 
me on, in this arduous controversy. — May God bless all the churches of our Lord 
Jesus Christ; and prosper our government, and our beloved country. And in his 
most benignant goodness, may He avert from us, and our children, popery, the most 
pestilential of all evils in church, and in state ! Amen. 

W. C. Brown LEE. 

New- York, Nov. 25, 1834. 



31 



NOTICE, 



The reader will find some quotations, and statements repeated in a few instances. This 
was deemed necessarj to elucidate our argument. In p. p. 256, 257, a quotation from a 
Greek father (usually bound up with Justin Martyr,) has been, by mistake, repeated, and 
ascribed to the martyr. We have studied to be accurate, yet there are some Errata. In 
tiu-ee instances, only, is the sense injured by them : viz. In p. 132, 1. 8 from the foot, for 
folloicins. r. foregoing; in p. 317. 1, o. from the foot, for icith, r. without: in p, 325, 1. 19, 
from the foot, before sincerely insert the word not. In the other instances, the errors are in 
letters. The following is a list. In p. p. 5, 6, read Augustinians : in p. 34, 1. 26, r. lose : p. 
46,1. 23, r. Gregory VII. : p. 68, 1. 9, from the foot, r. Acts II. : p. 75, 1. 20, r. sumrnam : p. 80, 
]. 16 v.you, and then youTj in the same line : p. S3, 1. 20, r. belongs: p. 97, 1. 13, strike out the 
repetition: p. 100, 1. 9 from the foot, r. confessor: p. 155,1. 12, r. antediluvian: ]>. 190, I. 
27, r. say: p. 205, 1. 25, r. throw: p. 264, 1. 6 from the foot, for jr^zsr. is: p. 323. 1. 22. for 
httmo r. homo : p. 330, 1. 24, r. the pope renews. — 



APPENDIX. 



I. ON THE COMPARATIVE NUMBER OF ROMAN CATHOLICS. 

First. In arriving at our conclusion on " the minority'''' of the Romish church, 
we should deduct from its numbers those who avoived infidelity ,vand treated Popery 
with ridicule. Here is one great deduction; say one- fourth? 

Second. Deduct the Christians, of various names, who held the doctrines of the 
Waldenses, and were nominally papists. This class was immensely numerous. 

"These Waldenses," says Rainerus, — "were in nearly every country." "They 
are multiplied through all lands," says Sanderus. " They have infested a thousand 
cities," says Ca3sarius. " They spread their contagion through almost the ivhole Latin 
world,^^ says Ciaconius. " Scarcely any region remained free and untainted from 
this pestilence," says Gretzen. And Poplinar says "they have spread not only 
through France, but nearly all the European coasts : and appeared in Gaul, Spain, 
England, Scotland, Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Saxony, Poland, and Lithuania." 
" Their numbers in those places," says Benedict, "were prodigious," " invaluerunt, 
they prevailed," or exceeded in numbers. Says Newburgh, — "they became like the 
sand of the sea ; without number; multiplicati esse, super numerum arenae videan- 
tur." See Labbeus; vol. xiii. p. 285, Newburgh, ii. p. 13, Edgar, p. 54. "Their 
number was prodigious in Sarmatia, Constantinople, Philadelphia, and Bulgaria." 
See Mathew; Paris, 306. 

And rriany of these were no mean men. Those who favored the Waldenses, were 
found in all ranks of society, from kings to peasants. Hence the singular circum- 
stance which occured at the battle of Muret, so fatal to the pious Albigenses. Among 
the slain was found, after the battle, a knight in black armor. On examination it 
was found to be Peter, the king of Arragon, — that very monarch who had negotiated 
between the pope's legate, and Beziers. Near him lay one of his roj^al sons, with 
many nobles, and gentry, and vassals, — '•'■who while ostensibly sii'pjiorting the Romish 
church, had, in disguise, been assisting the Albigenses !^^ Jones' llist. vol. ii. p. 133. 

During these ages, may we not deduct from the Roman catholic ranks one-half 
more in Europe ? The above surely v/ould authorise something like this. 

Third. We deduct the Albigenses and Waldenses; the Bohemian brethren, Lol- 
lards, aud all classes of primitive christians in the churches of England, Wales, 
Scotland, Spain, and Ireland, who were in a pure, and flourishing slate before the 
emissaries of Rome overran them. What vast numbers of pure christian churches 
flourished in Scotland, Spain, and Ireland, before the Romans introduced popery 
among them ! 

Besides, the number of the Waldenses who lived in a bod3s was prodigious, in 
addition to those, who were scatteretl over (he bosom of the poi)ish churches. The 
diocese of Passau alone contained 80, 000 of Ihem. And Daniel, vol. iii. p. 510, 
says that they "had covered with their errors, all Languedoc, both nobles, and ])opu- 
lace!" "There," says JJernard, Epist. 40. — "the Roman temples were left with- 
out people, the people w^ithoul pastors, and the pastors without respect." And we 
may form some idea of the number of these people in the Vallics, from their sending 
an army to defend themselves, of 100,000 young meri! And also from the French 



352 APPENDIX. 

sending 300,000 men against them. The Pope-sent Crusades against them, as he did 
against the Saracens of the East. And for nearly 200 years these christians defend- 
ed themselves, and set the Anolence of their enemies at defiance. "They injured 
the church in the West," says a Romish author, — "as much as the infidels in the 
East." And "at one time, they had nearly overwhelmed the holy warriors of the 
cross, and had hoped to establish heresy on the ruins of Romanism !" From this 
we may form some idea of their immense numbers! 

I wish we had accurate data to show the proportions existing between them, and 
the Romanists. How erroneous must be our conception of the numbers f/ten opposed 
to the Roman catholics, from the modern statistics of Malte Brun! 

Fourth. Next deduct the whole Greek church which opposed the Romish church. 
These christians covered the modern Russian dominions in Europe and Asia: they 
covered European and Asiatic Turkeys — which is now Mohammedan! They took 
in Greece proper, and all her thousand isles. They extended over Syria, Mesopo- 
tamia, Asia Minor, Palestine, Georgia, and Mingrelia. From one fact stated in one 
of my letters, we may form some idea of the number of christians in this church. 
ThePatriarch of Constantinople governed, in the eleventh centur^^ 6.5 metropolitans, 
and upw^ards of 600 bishops. And these bishops must have had many hundreds, if 
not thousands of officiating priests under them. Some bishops of Europe have 
had 11,000 priests under their ghostly care. 
. ~ Fifth. The Nestorians were another immense class of christians. These extend- 
ded their dense population over Asiatic Turkey, Arabia, Persia, Tartary, India, 
China. Cosmas, as quoted by Montfaucon and Edgar, says, that "in the sixth cen- 
tury their churches and people were infinite, — unnumbered." The writer Yilricius 
Tom. i. p. 76, states that there was " a numerical superiority of the Nestorians and 
the Jacobins (named from St. James the Apostle) over the Greek and Latin churches !" 
Canisius quotes for his authority, an old writer, stating the same calculation. Polo, 
who had spent seventeen years in Tartary, and was in the employ of the Cham 
speaks of their immense numbers, scattered over Tartary, China, and the empire of 
the Moguls. ^L_Paris+,Godeau_, and Thoraassin attest "their diffusion through 
India, Persia, and Tartary," and add that "their multiplication in the North, and 
\^East, was nearly to infinity :"—" lis s'y muliiplierent presque a I'infini, &c." 

Sixth. The class of christians called Monophysians were " spread over more 
than forty h'ingdoins.''^ Then the Ab^-ssiniau Christians " boasted a Christian 
empire and establishment.'" The myriads of these have never been estimated. An- 
cient writers speak of christians there as innumerable. Seventh, there are the 
myriads of the Armenian churches of the East. Besides the country which gives 
them their name, they were spread over Cappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, Persia, the isles 
of the Mediterranean, India, Turkey, Poland, Transylvania, Russia, Hungary. At 
Julfa alone, near Ispahan, there were .30,000 of these Christians; 20,000 of their 
families, or about 120,000 persons, resided in the province of Guilam. These facts 
are stated b}^ Chard in, in his Travels. Forty thousand families, or 240,000 indi- 
viduals of them, reside in India, engaged in the inland irade: and 200,000at Constan- 
tinople, and on the Bosphorus. Chardin, vol. ii. 97. The Armenian Patriarch at 
Antioch, has under him 14 metropolitans, and a thousand bishops! 

Eighth. The Syrian churches have counted immense numbers. They had 
occupied western India, with their prodigious host of members, for more than 1200 
years before they had ever heard of the name of the pope, or the Rcmish chtn-ch. 
With the visit of Vasco di Gama, "the infernal spirit of popery and persecution 
invaded that apostolical church." Godeau reckons their population in Comorin, 
Coutan, Malabar, at 70,000 persons: ^ut, the historian adds, " their numbers 
toward the West and North, and Cochin, are much greater." 

Then, there were the Egyptians, whose See was at Alexandria. Who has ever 
numbered the christians there; and all along the Southern shores of the Mediterra- 
nean, even the prodigious numbers of African christians which flourished from 
the infancy of popery; and boasted of such men as St. Augustine, and St. 
Cyprian ! 

I repeat the words of Edgar, whose testimony I prefer to Malte Brun, or any 



APPENDIX. 353 

modern papist, who has not entered into the estimates of the comparative numbers in 
ancient times; nor examined the statements of these fathers, and travellers, now 
quoted by us: " The European, the Asian, and African denominations that dissented 
from popery were four times more numerous than the partizans of Romanism, when, 
prior to the Reformation, the papacy shone in all its glory. Popery, instead of 
universality, which is its vain boast, was never embraced by more than a fifth part 
of Christendom." Variations of Popery, p. Q7, Dublin edition. 

TI. TAXLE CANCELLARIiB APOSTOLICiE; ET TAX^ SACRiE PENITENTIARI^, 
THE pope's bank; or chancery tax BOOK. 

I have before me, these Tax^ in two different editions : First, Taxce, from the 
archives of the "Roman Chancery," in the British Museum, Nos. 1650, 1651, 1652. 
The money is marked in Grossi ; it is in the original Latin. 

Second: — An edition in the original Latin, with a French translation; having the 
the text as copied and corrected by Antoine Du Pinet, Lord of Noroy, in Franche- 
comte. Rivet drew the exact copy of his edition from the Paris edition of the Chan- 
cery Book, of A. D. 1520. Voetius also exhibits the ancient editions; and Bayle, in 
his Diet. Article Banck. Claud D'Espence, a popish doctor mentions "Zes Taa:es 
De la chancellarie apostolique ;" as a book well known in his day; and holds it up 
to odium; see his Digr. ii. ad Epist. ad Titum. cap. 1. There were three editions 
of the Taxa at Paris; one is dated 1523; two, at Cologn, one, dated in 1532- 
two at Venice ; one at Wirtembergh, dated 1538. The copy from which I take my 
extracts, is printed from that of Pinet, of 1564. It bears date of 1744. Several 
editions were published by Protestant doctors in the 17th century : they were care- 
fully printed from the early Roman catholic editions. No literary man now denies 
the authority of this genuine Romish work, 1 refer to the edition now before me 
and the statements of Dr. Drelincourt, and Mons. Bayle, in defence of its authen- 
ticity. The following I offer as a specimen, in addition to what I have given; the 
pages marked, are of the edition of Pinet, which I use. 

" Absolutio, &c. Absolution, in form, for a dying person, the tax is, 14 carlins." 
See p. 73. "Absolution for a confraternity, or a Societas, 50 carl." — p. 74. Abso- 
lution of a priest for celebrating a clandestine marriage, 7 carl." — p. 88. " Absolution 
of a priest for keeping a concubine, and a dispensation for his irregularities, &c. 7 
carlins." — p. 89. " Absolution of a layman for keeping a concubine, 8 carlins." 
p. 89. [It is one carlin more wicked in him, than in a " holy priest !"] 

"Absolutio pro eo qui matrem, sorrorem, aut aliam consanguinem, aut comma- 
trem, carnaliter cognovit, taxatur ad 5 carlinos." p. 89. "Absolutio pro eo qui vir- 
ginem dejioravit, 6 carl." p. 89. " For forging apostolical dispensations, 17 carlins." 
p. 94. "For simony, 6 carl." p. 90. "A layman killing any ecclesiastic less than 
a bishop, provided he present himself at the apostolical seat, is taxed at 7, or 8 or 
carlins." p. 94. " For a layman killing a layman, 5 carl." p. 96. 

From Titulo XX. I copy the following. "Absolution for him who has killed his 
father, his mother, his brother, sister, wife, or other relative, tax is 5 carlins* provid- 
ed he be a layman: if any of them be of clerical rank, he must, besides that fine 
visit the apostolical scat." p. 97, 98. In Titulo XXL, entitled Additions of absolu- 
tions, this crime is taxed at "1 ducat, 5 carlins." p. 102, "For strikin tone's wife 
and causing a miscarriage, 8 carlins." p. 98. " For a woman louse poisons to cause' 
abortion, tax, 5 carlins." p. 99. In Titulo XXL, p. 103, the female doing this, "is 
taxed 1 ducat, 6 carlins." "For pushing oneself into holy orders without \he bishop's 
license, tax, 2 ducats." p. 102. "For a priest who strikes another priest after mass 
3 ducats." p. 103. "But if he beat him before he celebrated the mass, the tax is 
2 ducats." p. 103. [In the first case, thewafer god is in him; in the last it is not .'] 
"Absolution and permission to bury a suicide in holy ground, 1 ducat, 9 carlins." 
p. 104. "For a |)rie.si cutcring holy orders by simony, 4(lucats, 4 carlinsi." p. 105 
" For an abbot or bishop killing a man, his tax is .50 tournois, 12 ducats, 6 carlins.'' 
p. 123. " For killing a bishop, or abbot, or any superior prelate, the tax is S6 tour^ 
nois, 9 ducats." p. 136, These arc among "the additional taxes." 

3i* 



354 .ippL>"Dix. 

In Titulo XXXII. and XXXHI. I find the feUoiriag: "Absolution for a mao 
kiiii-ug a wife, the same as killing a faiher, or mother, 4 tonmois, 1 ducat, 8 earlins.** 
p. 139. '"Dispensation to the man who has killed his wife, to marry another wife^ 
the tax is 8 tnmois, 2 dacats, 9 carlins." p. 139. " For killing an iniaat, 4 tour. 1 
due. 9 carl." p. 139. 

" Absolution for theft, sacrilege, burning hoa«es« rapine, perjury, 36 toor. 9 dBC." 
p. 145. ^'Absolution of a priest for the most licentious deeds, 36 tour., 3 ducats.'^ 
p. 154. " Absolutiou and dispensation for a priest keep'D? a concubine, 21 totir. 5 
due, 6 carlins." " Absolution of a Nun for fomicatior .5 ducats.*' p. 155. 

•'Absolution erf" an adulterer, 4toum.'* "'Absolution c: . :i f&retny act of ymr 

cleaimesSt 6 toum. 2 ducats.*' p. 156- 

" Absolution for incest with a sister, amother, oranynearrel?v>r. 4 •oiim."'p.l56. 
" Absolution for one guilty of adultery, and incest, 6 toum." p. 157. '^AbaoJMtio 
De Bestialiiate, et Sodomia^ 90 toum. 12 ducats, 6 carlins." p. 158. 

This is a specimen of the Pope's Chancery Book, whiefc —t^^ -r^^-=:! \- rapal 
authority, to be denied, and held up by all priests, "as a tdc .. : Pnh- 

testaofits." But editions still exist, in Europe, that were prin t . 1 ' . : i-^e 

it could nrtt have been iuTented by them. Besides, as we ha r I 

mish doctors of more pure morals, have declaimed against i:. : , 

ized book. And it is an historic^ fact that this denial was r : . . - i ■ 

discovered by the papists, that the book had fallen into the Pil;:;:ii-:: _:lZ i; . B^z.:, 
why deny the ^jok of tari£f, when every one who goes to conte^on does pay : and 
every friend of souls in purgatory must pay for ma^es to bring them out ! 

I beg leave to add one curious quotation. At the end of the chapter of "Absolu- 
tions to marry within a certain degree," and "in case of divorces," it is added, — 
* - Nott ictU : graces and dispensations of this kind, are not conceded to the poor : be- 
cmise they ham no means; itiierefore they cannot he comforted/'* See foUo XXIII., 
Edit. 1520: and p. 208. Edit, of 1625: also FoUo 130/Eii:. :f 1543 : and p. 19 o[ 
the Edit, which I use. 

In reference to the n?oney set down here, I shall :: y ' ^-^ fs /:i:?.~tons. A 
ToMmow weighed 2 Deniers, 7 graii^: there were 58 ::i : A Ij:.:u, a gold 

coin, valued, it is supposed, at cent dix sols. A Carlin is ::ie ssjzie as die Gros. It is 
a small silver coin, valued at 7 sols, in France. 

In fine it appears, that in each country, the priests si:?/: ^I Jr .::c 'o the current 
money of the realm; and to the poorer, or richer c::: :—- e:i — e knaves who 

appli^ for relief, and a good bargain in this perish •.raiS^c :; ^:^.:.l iiz'.s." — See 
Revel, xviii. 13. 

m. GROSS IMPITRITT E^JOIIVED ET PIPES A2<^D C0r5CILS. 

In the Decretals of Grstian. I' : : ' t ?^^ t ; r. " r comi- 

cil of Toledo:— "Qui nonhac ; :. He 

^ho hasnota wifeoMg**inihr - _e." 

In the 17th canon of that CO u: ~ t i - — C iiabere lic:-.im est 
unam tantum aut uxorem, aut ; : It is lawful ibr a chris- 
tian to have only one wife ; or :e, a concubine." Pi- 
thou Corpus Jur. canon, p. 47. P E r T L : ^ C oncil. Tom. i. p. 737, 
739, 740, states the same ; an : . ^ - : -i^ council were confirmed 
by Pope Leo. Edgar's Var. of Popery. . J. T > : rririisiicii ssvs Gisn-n, ex- 
tends to the clergy and laity; Hist- of JSe -ts, XI. 7. 

IT. iyr>i.x zx?r?.;-AToaros- 

~£z^ :-- T^r : ^ I- , is given by a Spanish Roman catho- 

:^ ^ L ' - - , ' Says Mr. Fejada, — ** The Indexes Ex- 

^ ^; _ . ^ ^r rr: cafholic; and in which there 

> : : t: Kt should have added, — ^wbere 

r^ T — r 1- R :: rrirsts c(Hidescend to per- 



purg; 
is no 



APPENDIX. 355 

To give an idea of the Index, I shall quote a specimen of the manner, in which 
Rome treats her sainted fathers. I copy out of Soto Major's Spanish Index Expur- 
gatorius, of A. D. 1667. The Inquisitors direct, in p. 52, an expurgation of St. Atha- 
nasius, by striking out the following doctrines of that father. " God alone is to be 
adored. Angels are not to be adored. Christ alone is to be adored. The body of 
Christ is not corporeal food, but spriritual. No creature is to be adored : for that is 
to follow the Arians, and the heathens. The sacred scriptures are in themselves 
sufficient for the discoveries of truth." Let these be stricken out. 

In p. p. 56 and 57, we find St. Augustine put into the crucible to be expurgated of 
certain doctrines, offensive to Rome. And hence, the scandalous deception of our 
priests, M^ho affect to be amazed that we should quote these doctrines out of this father 
after he had, by these doctors, been purged of them. The following are some of 
them. — " Why angels, or just men refuse to be adored. We do not raise temples to 
them. The superstitious abstinence froju flesh. What Christ said about eating his 
flesh is spiritually understood. In Augustine's time, no one set himself up for bishop 
of bishops. Two sacraments flowed from the side of Christ. Works necessarily 
follow faith. Before God we are justijied by faith. The use of images is prohibited^ 
The book of Maccabees is apocryphal. See p. 58. The saints are to be loved, and 
imitated, not worshipped. It is a sin to place the image of God in churches." p. 59o 
These precious doctrines are ordered by the pope to be expunged. And this being 
declared by their master, the priests have, thence, the audacity to affirm that St. Au- 



em 



giistine never taught th 

Under the head of St. Chrysostom, the following words, of this father, namely,— 
" Priests are subjected Jo princes,^^ are made to suffer papal expulsion. Seep. 703. — • 
To this I add the Inquisitor's damnatory sentence on Lewis Vives, who had taught 
that the king's poiver and majesty is inferior only to God on earth. This in p. 65, is 
ordered to be " expurgated." — As the best book on the subject, 1 refer to Mendham's 
Literary policy of the church of Rome, exhibited in an account of the damnatory cata- 
logues, or Indices, both Prohibitory, and Expurgatory. Lond. 1320. And to the 
Lond. Prot. Journ. for 1832, p. p. 781, 782. 

V. Confession. 

The form of a Roman catholic's confession at the feet of the priest. "I confess to 
Almighty God; to the blessed Mary, ever Virgin : to blessed Michael the archangel; 
to blessed John Baptist: to St. Peter, and St. Paul; to all the Saints, and to you^ 
father, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, in word, in deed, &c. &c, See 
Ordinary of the Mass. — Thus, we see, the victim of this imposture, is made to con- 
fess to the "dead men, and dead women," called saints, and to the priest, just as he 
does to Almighty God I 

VI. Absolution. — See Letter xii. p. 220. 

It is usually said by many Protestants, and by all Roman catholics, that the 
priests do not pretend to pardon sin in granting absolution : but that they simply 
declare sin to be remitted to the penitent, by God. I shall quote a document, and 
leave the reader to decide how far ignorance and imposture have propagated this 
sentiment. Here are the words of the decree of the Council of Trent, which, as 
every priest knows, is of more authority in Rome, than the Bible. " <St quis dixerit, 
fyc. If any one shall say that the sacramental absolution of the priest is not a judi- 
cial act, but a naked ministry of pronouncing and declaring that sins are remitted to 
the person confessing, provided only that he believes, &c. let him be accursed." 
Hence it is not sitnply a declaratory, hiil formal and judicial act of the priest, sitting 
as judge; and in Christ's stead, uttering the sentence of pardon to the victims of his 
imposture ! Concil. Trid. Sess. 14. Can. 9. 



INDEX 



Absolution, — God only pardons sin, 92; refu 
tation of, 218. 

Allix's defence of the Waldenses, 27. 

Ambrose, defended against Dr. Varela, 80; is 
no idolater, 80, 81; on the succession, 210 
on images, 113; on prayers in unknown 
tongues, 216: against absolution, 222:— 
against the popish rule, 225 ; and transub 
stantiation, 237; and purgatory, 257. 

Anecdotes, — of a horse and the host, 115; of 
bees and the host, 143; of the souls in form 
of Crabs in velvet, 143; of a popish maniac 
exorcised, 144: of St. Peter's chair, 144; 
of an ignorant priest, 148; of a priest and a 
Dutch Dominie, 180; of a candid cardinal 
and his chaplain, 248; of the Jesuit who 
could not even with the help of the devil 
find a text to support purgatory, 249; of 
a priest and a nobleman, 251; of priest 
Thom, and a poor widow, 252 ; of the chief 
of the house of Gordon, 277; of the vicar 
of Croydon preaching against printing, 330 ; 
of a young medical student at the confes- 
sional, 331. 

Anthony St. miracle of, 107. 

Antiquity, whether a mark of the truth of the 
Romisli church, 150. 

Apocrypha, not belonging to the sacred canon, 
38; refutation of its claims, 229. 

Aquinas, St. Thomas, on prayers in unknown 
tongues, 21C. 

Archbishop, anecdote of an Italian, 84. 

Arian cobler, C3; origin and exposure of this 
popish sophism, 76. 

Aristotle's absurdities employed by papists on 
transubstantiation, 235. 

Ass, feant of thC; song sung to it by the 
priests, 140, 141. 

Athanasius, on the rule of faith 74,225; on 
images 1J3; on saint and an el worship, 
214; on the apocrypha, 230 <' on transub- 
stantiation, 237; on purgatory 258. 

Attribiiles of popery, — impurity, 321 ; impiety 
and arrogance, 322; treachery, 325; intole- 
rance, 329; cruelty, '.V.VZ. 

Auction for souls, at Irish fimerals, what, 252. 

Augustine, against the popish rule of faith, 
72, 22-^; (Icfended from Dr. Varela's quota- 
tions, 81 ; on pupal suprcaiacy, 94 ; saint 



worship, 96, 214 ; against retaining the 
scriptures in a dead tongue, 99; on "the 
Rock," 206; on images, 213; on prayers in 
an unknown tongue, 216; on the worship 
of the Virgin Mary, 218; on the pardon and 
absolution ofsins, by the priests, 222 ; on the 
apocryphanot being canonical, 230; against 
transubstantiation, 239; and the mass, 245; 
and purgatory, 258, 

Auricular confession, originated by fanaticism^, 
113; a novelty, 152. 

Authority of the church of Rome, not the 
cause of the Bible's authority, 30. 

Auto da Fe, description of a Spanish, 338. 



B 



Ba'ptism, not established by tradition only, 68. 

Barnabas' epistle, 62. 

Baronius, on the wickedness of the popes, 37, 
38. 

Basil, against absolution, 223 ; and the popish 
rule of faith, 226; and purgatoiy, 257. 

Becket, Thomas a, more honor paid to this 
saint, than to Christ, 123, 279. 

Bellarmine, on papal supremacy, 43, 44, 75, 
83, 89: on the rule of faith, 75; on the suc- 
cession, 111; he taught the supremacy of 
spiritual power over civil governments in 
temporal things, 313 ; his atrocious defence 
of persecution, and extermination by fire 
and s\vord, 343. 

Bells, popish baptism of, 136. 

Bernard, St. again.^,t transubstantiation, 239; 
and the mass, 245. 

Bible, see Scriptures. 

Bishop, every Roman prelate is bound by his 
oath to persecute, 344. 

Blasphemies of popery, specimens of, 44, 46, 
79. 

Bolsec, the priests quote this infamous man 
against the Reformers, 15, 26. 

Bonaventuro, St. a singular blaspiieming fa- 
natic, 97. 

Brunswick, the old Duke of, his curious bar 
gain witii the Romish priests, for the life 
insuranr.c of his soul, 9, 14, 139. 

Uullinger, quotation from, viiulicatcd, 24. 

IJufler's Lives of the Saints, monstrous mira^ 
clcs in, 142. 



358 



INDEX. 



Call to the ministry, Roman priests know not 
even the meaning of it. 47 



call it i' our interior spirit," "private spirit," 
15; their system necessarily opposed to this 
liberty, 43 : God the only Lord of the con- 
science, 92 ; papal usurpations on it, 122. 



Calvin, vindication of, from popish slanders,: Conversion of three Romish priests,. 241 
25; case of Servetus, papists enacted the Conversion, papal, \vhat it is, 81 ; evangelical 
laws, under which he suffered, 341. I conversion, not admitted on popish princi- 

Canon, council of Carthage on the, 38; de-j pies, 81. 
daring the apocrypha not of the canon, 38 ;' Corpus Christi, festival of, originated by gross 
no canonical book lost, 61 ; priests absurd-' fanaticism, 114. 
ly insist that the Bible should do that by in- Councils', and popes' power, 19, 20: two 

ternal evidence, which can be done only by. councils quoted against purgatory, 259. 

external evidence, in reference to its canoni-, Crabs in velvet, souls coming out of purgatory 

city-, 7S; the Greek church cudgelled the in the form of, 143, 144. 

church of Rome into orthodoxy, respecting Creed of Protestants, priests' opinion of, 78 ; 

the canon, 119. ' ' in scripture texts. 146. 

Canonizing, power of, 106. Cross, the wood of worshipped by papists. 

Card well refutes Curtis on his charge of er-, 139: farther proof and specimens, 282. 

rors in the English version, 79, 89, 90. ; Croydon, vicar of, his saying about printing, 

Catholic churcli of Christ very different fi-om' 330. 

the Roman catholic church of the pope, 24. Crusades, two kinds of, 340; specimens of 
Catholicity, on the claims of the popish church 341. 

to this attribute. 153. Cup, or wine, abstraction of, in the eucharist, 

Celibacy of priests and nuns, a novelty, 98;! a popish novelty, 99. 

it originates infinite licentiousness in the Curse, specimens of the papal, 342. 

Romish church. 186. Curtis' collection of errors in the English 

Chancery book of the pope, tariff prices of Bible, 79, 89; Cardwell in reply, 89, 90. 

sin, 45"; Appendix II. Cyprian against the apocrypha, 230; and 

Chair of St. Peter, ludicrous anecdote of the,' transubstantiation. 237 ; and purgatory, 256. 

144. iCyril, — against absolution, 223; against the 

Charles V. the emperor a tool of Clement! popish rule of fahh, 226; and the apocrypha, 

VII. 32S ; his noble answer in the case of' 

Luther, 323. i 

Chastity^ its meaninsr among popish priests, I t\ 

321. ' '^ , . ' 

Chillingworth on the rule of faith, quoted, Damasus, against the mass, 245. 

19, 36. ; Damnation, power of, claimed by popes, 323, 

Christians, number of, compared to that of 324. 

papists, 201, 202 ; and Appendix I. iDavid, St, of Scotland, popish miracle by, 

Chrysostom St.. on '-'prophetic remains," 61 ;' 109. 

on the rule of faith, 74, 227 ; against the in-i Deism of N. Y, priests proved, 10, 12, 34, 54, 

vocation of saints, 96 ; on the text of " the 59, 60, 76. 

Rock," 209; against absolution by priests. Deists, — necessary tendency of popery to pro- 

222 ; and transubstantiation 239 ; and the duce and increase them. 90. 225. 

mass, 245 ; and purgatory. 258. I Demons, doctrine of, in the Romish church, 

Church of God, never cut off', 42 ; not always 324. 

visible, ^-not visible in Israel in Ahab'5time.|Despotism essential to the genius of popery, 

42; doctrinalmarksof, 91; separate from! 17,306,320,322. 

the state always when in her purest condi- Devil, — Luther a pupil of the, refuted, 25. 

tion.92. :Di\'isions of Protestants, one real cause of 

Circle, the vicious, the priests resort to this; their apparently greater number, 5; the 

form of false logic. -58, 64. i divisions of papists, excessive, 5, 15. 

Civil power, over magistrates, and temporal Doctrinal conti-adictions of popery. 285, 

things, claimed by popes. 44. jDoctrinal marks of the true cliurch of Christ, 

Clemens Alex, condem ns absolution by priests, j 91, — 93. 

223: asrainst transubstantiation, 233; andjDoctrines and rites of popery, originated by 

the mass. 246. fanaticism. 110 ; popery at open war with 

Conclave of cardinals choose iico popes at the! Bible doctrines ; 285, 236, 293. 

same time. 16-5. .Douay translation, its glaring errors, 71; not 

Confessional, immoral influence of, on the authorised by the pope, or "church," 88: 



230; and transubstantiation, 238; and pur- 
gatory, 257, 258. 



minds of priests, 129; and on servants. 
129, 130. 
Conscience, liberty of, 9; papists deny this 
liberty, 9, 30, 43, 76; their disingenuous 
manner of replying to this charge ; they 



122 ; the priests' lame and Jesuitical defence 
of it. 133. 1.34. 
Duke of Brunswick's curious bargain with 
the priests about the insurance of his soul's 
life, 9, 14, 139. 



INDEX. 



359 



Dutch christians of Holland, sufferings and 
massacres of, 346, 347^ 



pish ceremonies ; his Jesuitism and false 
hood exposed, 315, 316; he contradicts in 
his book the words of a papal Bull, 316 

English version of the Bible, the papists have 
no autliorised one, 72. 

Epiphanius against saint invocation, 

against the worship of Mary, 218, against 
purgatory, 259. 

Eusebius, against transubstantiation, 238 

Excommunication of vermin, 142 ; annual ex- 
communication and cursing of Protestants 
by papists, 315, 342. 

Exorcism of a demoniac pretended, an anec- 
dote, 144. 

F 

Fair sex of Spain, and Romish priests, anec- 
dote of, 189. 

Faith, new articles of, power of the pope to 
enact, 83, twelve new articles added, 83, 85. 

Faith of Roman catholics what? 33, 34, 
contradicted by express texts, 148, carbona- 
ri an faith, 182, 

Faith of God, no foundation for it in popery, 
284 5 the popish doctrine of Intention ren- 
ders faith, and hope, and salvation utterly 
uncertain to them, 297, 301. 

Fanaticism of the Romish church, 15, 105, 
106.108,113. 

Fathers unanimous consent of, not in exis- 
tence, 11, proof of this, 72, 73. 

Field, Dr., Vindication of, from popish quota- 
tions, 24. 

Francis, St. miracles ascribed to him, 108. 

French christians, sufferings and massacres of 
them, 346. 

G 

Galileo's sentence of condemnation, unre- 
pealed by the pope, to this day, 301 ; say- 
ing of one of his companions, respecting 
his judges, 302. 

Gelasius, the pope, against transubstantiation, 
237. 

Generations, the 14, textual difficulty of, in 
Mattli. i., solved, 66. 

God's singular family group, according to 
popery, 106. 

Gordon, anecdote of the chief of the house of, 
277. 

Governments, civil, convulsed b}'^ popery, 287, 
289; hostility of pop(My to lil)erfy, 306, 
danger to our fr(M; institutions from its frc- 
serit conspiracy against our republic, 306, 
307, 308; Bellarmine and other writers on 
the subjection of civil powers to the spiritu- 
al, 313; farther shown from the bishops', 
and priests' oath to the pope, 318, 322. 



Grace, doctrines of, in the Romish church, 
82; Trent fathers on them, 82, 83. 

Gregory, the saint, and pope, against papal 
supremacy, 95; on succession, 110; con- 
demns penance and absolution 223; and 
the mass, 245. 

Gregory, pope^ "the hell hrand,'^ an ultra on 
supremacy, 82. 

Gregory Nazianzen, against purgatory, 257. 

Gregory Nyssen, against saint invocation, 96; 
against purgatory, 257. 

Gregory XVI. the present pope, an idolatrous 
worshipper of Mary, 97. 



II 



Hampton conference, speeches there against 
"translations of the Bible," 79, exposure of 
this, 89. 

Hebrew and Greek of the Holy Ghost, always 
ridiculed by the priests, 28, 48, 50, 51, 
77, reason of it, 84, 100. 

Hebrews not without the written rule for 14 
generations, 59. 

Hebrew text, reply to the priests' injurious re- 
flections on the, 72. 

Herbert, Lord, a fanatical deist, 104. 

Heretic, definition of, at the priests call, 16. 

Heretics, no faith to be kept with, a regular 
popish dogma, proof, 326 ; specimens, 327, 
329. _ . 

Hilary, on the succession and " The Rock," 
110; condemns absolution, 223; against 
the popish rule of faith, 226; against tran- 
substantiation, 237; against purgatory, 256. 

Holiness, succession of Home cut off by the 
loss of 161, — But ];)opish holiness is con- 
veyed l)y the most atrocious of men, 164, — 
their idens of it, 184. 

Holy Mother church, — the priests cannot even 
agree in telling us what it is, 11, 33. 

Holy Water, origin of, 137; in popery it 
takes the place of the Holy Spirit, 323. 

Hooker, vindication of him from popish quo- 
tations, 24, 38. 

Horse, devmdiy ivorships the mass, a popish 
miracle, 115. 

Huss, a martja- of Christ, by the popish dog- 
ma, " keep no faith with heretics," 166, 32^. 



Iddo, book of, noticed, 61. 
Idolatry of popery, 10(). see imnges. 
Ignatius against transubslantintion, 237. 
Images condennied by councils, 81, 82; their 

use a novelty in the clirint'uin world, 98; 

condennied by scripture and the fathers, 212, 

213, 274, 277, 283; three factions in Rome 

respecting inuigcis, 278. 
Immorality of popery, 45; tlie mother of 

deism aiul vice, 286, 287 ; full exposure of 

this, 288, 321. 
Impostures of p(<pery, 105, 142. 



360 



INDEX. 



In cosna Domini, analysis of this bull, 317. Jesuits,— raaxims and practices of, 85. 87, 129, 
Index Expurgatorius, one of the mighty Avea-: 130.197; character of, 131 ; a solemn ap- 

pons of papal power, 333. ; peal and warning against their prcstnt con- 

Indulgences, sources of wealth to the Romish spiracy, 319 ; tlfeir secret oath bv which 

priesthood, 2'22. they are banded together, copy of it, 329. 

Infallibility. — the papists cannot agree in de- Joan, the pope, 62. 

ciding where it lies, 19, 32, 75, e9 ; it has'John the apostle ; the popish doctrine of sue- 
not settled any divisions in the R. C. church, ^ cession and supremacy, load him with con- 

11, 21, 46; Ludicrous error of our priests on tempt and insolence, 93. 

this ; they assert, repeatedly, that the use of Jones' defence of the character and doctrines 

their infallible rule of faith', makes those in- of the Waldenses, 27. 

fallible who use it, 14, 60, 84. 103 ; their Judas.— a part of the rope with which he 

leading maxim is, that the promise of infal- hanged himself, among '' the holy relics,'^ sX 

libility is made by Christ, to oral teaching, Rome, 107. 

not icritten inspiration, 34; infalliUUtij, and Judge of controversy, the Holy Ghost, speak- 

iheir do^ma of intention irreconcilable, 4S; ing in the Word, 3 ; passim m the Letters ii. 

theirvicious circle on this, 121 ; Bellarmine's iii. iv. v. 

doctrine on this. 323. Judgment, rights of each person's private, 

Inquisition, 332 ; this grows out of the very ridiculed by priestly intolerance as '^ the in- 

nature and aim of popery, which thrives terior spirit," io, 43. 

only by despotism, 333; definition of. 333, Justin Martyr, against transubsrantiation, 238; 

334; history of its rise and progress, 334 ; and the luass, 245 ; and purgatory, 256, 257. 

some countries never submitted to it, 335;' 

Inquisitorial law, curious origin of it, 335;' K 

Inquisitor, definition of an, 335; picture of; 

— 336; the interior, 337; various tortures, Kettle, anecdote of the cooper, and Patrick 

337, 340 ; number of those who perished by O. B., 32. 

it in Spain, 340. ;Kings of Europe, have, for generations, been 

Intention, papal docti-ine of, fatal to their' "the pope's liangmen,"' 334. 

priests, and their rites, 43 ; it bids defiance Knox, John, ludicrous slander of by the pa- 

to their infallibility, 48; striking specimen; pists, 26. 

of Jesuitism in defending, and covering it,j 

50,76; an examination of its fatal effects; L 

. on the Avhole system of popery, 297, 301. 
Internal evidence of the Bible confounded by Lactantius. on imaoes, 213 ; against the mass. 



priests, icith external, 78: and passim. 
Intolerance one of the grand attributes 

popery, 329. 
Irenseus against ti-ansubstantiatiou. 237. 
Italic, old, version of, older than Jerome's, 

the Vulgate, 69. 



\ 246; against purgatory, 256. 
of Laity, treated by the Romish priests w'ith in- 
! science and contempt, 57. 
Laodicean council against the apocrypha, 
or 231; vindication of "the. 231. 

iLatin prayers condemned by scripture and the 
Irish catholics, an earnest appeal to them, on ?7;e fathers,'214, 215; and by'Cajetan, 216. 
wore^f?/ of popery, and in behalf of the an- Leariiing. hostility to it. an essential element 
cient and pritnitive religion of their originalj of popery, 301; specimens of its retaining 
ancestors in Ireland, 232. i the sentiments of the Dark Ages, on common 

I science, 301 ; its ludicrous condemnation of 
J I Bishop Virgil for believing in antipodes; 

I and Galileo, for believing in our doctrine of 
I the solar system, 301, 302. 
g Leo X.. the pope, claimed power to enact new 
; articles of faith. 83. 
Levins, Mr , his peculiar taste for the low^, dis- 



James, Dr. his Bellum Papal?. 87. 

Januarius. St. the annual miracle of melti 
his blood, at Naples, 143. 

Jasher, the book of, noticed, 61. 

Jerome, — his Latin version of the Scriptures! 
altered in the Vulgate, 69, 70; Jerome quo-: 
ted on the popish rule of faith, 73- 228; on! 
the Latin version, 88; against papal supre-' 
macy, 94; on the text of "the Rock," and, 
succession, 207. 209 ; he condemns penance,; 
and absolution. 222; against the apocrypha.' 



gusting, and ribaldrous, specimens, 28, 30, 
31, 86 ; his cowardly insolence in insulting 
ladies, 86. 87, &c. : specimen of his blas- 
phemy, 79, 90; calls Dr. B. his opponent 
A LIAR, 147 ; his appropriate protot^-pe, an 
officer of the court of the king of Assjria, 
171; the epitaph, 172. 
230; and transubstantiation, 239; and the Liberality, and toleration of sentiment never 
mass, 244 ; and purgatory, 258. i known in the Romish church, 313; not al- 

Jerome of Prague, a martyr of Christ, by po-! lowed on Roman cathoUc principles, proof, 
pish treachery, 116. 323. - - j ^"^^' ^"^•^• 

iLibertv. the genius of popery is in deadly 
i hostility to," 47, 77; pure Christianity the 



Jesuitism, instances of in N. Y. priests, 50, 
85, 87 ; its spirit, 169, 197. 



tNDEX- 



parent and nurse of true liberty, 92 ; an ap- 
peal to Roman catholic laymen on this, 
178, 193. 

Liturgies of the Oriental churches opposed to 
transubstantiation, 240. 

Logic, — curious specimens of Romish logic, 
34, 85 ; N. Y. priests employ as an argument 
againstthe divine rule of faith, the abuse of 
it by evil men, 76 ; specimen of their logic 
on their church's antiquity, 150 ; in their 
claims to catholicity, 154. 

Luther's character vindicated from the slang 
of our priests, 24, 25, 119; anecdote of him 
and an ignorant priest, 148. 



M 



Magistrates, papist contempt of, 322. In Eu- 
rope they were, for centuries, the pope's 
"spies and hangmen," 334. 

Man of Sin, a peculiar title of the Romish hie- 
rarchy, 321, 323, 325. 

Marcellinus, the pope, an idolater, 75. 

Marks of their church claimed by papists, an- 
tiquity, 150. See Catholicity, &^c. 

Marry, forbidding to, peculiar attribute of the 
popish apo Stacy, 324. 

Mary. See Virgin. 

Mary St. a torturing machine of papists, 338. 

Mass, a substitute for our Lord's atonement, 
81 ; a mere novelty, 98 ; it w^as originated 
by fanaticism, 114; w^orshlpped by a horse, 
a popish miracle, 115; superstition of it, 
136 ; bees worshipping it, 143 ; full exa- 
mination of it, refutation, — by reason, 242; 
by Scripture, 243; by the fathers, 244 ; rea- 
sons why popish priests cling to this grand 
invention, as their last hope, 246 ; various 
convenient masses, 247 ; picture of a high 
mass inpontificalihus, 268. 

Matrimony, thrown into confusion among pa- 
pists by the priests' doctrine of Intention, 
300. 

Maxim, a useful one in controversy, 13. 

Meats in lent, 138 ; allowed lately to be eaten 
on Saturdays, 224; forbidden by popery, 
324. 

Middleton quoted on the pagan origin of po- 
pish rites, 264, 268. 

Miracles, popish, 106, 107, 108, 109, 1J5. 

Misquotations and textual perversions by pa- 
pists, instances of, 14, in reference to 2 
Pet. i. 20; and our rule of faith, 54. 58,— 
in reference to 2 Peter iii. 16, " hard to be 
understood," 57, glaring instance of, 95. 

Misrepresentations, 75, 76, of Dr. Curtis and 
priests, 79, specimen of, 102. 

Molina's works noticed, code of Jesuitism, 
183, and 263. 

Monkish orders, seven of them, founded by 
fanatics, 111, — they cause distractions, 204. 

Morals, Popish, 129, infamous maxims on, 
130, 194—199,— quotations, 263. 

Mortmain law of England, cause and orii^in 
of, 246. 



Mother of God, a name of blasphemy, 96, 
97, 103 ; this involves the Eutychian heresy, 
105. Epiphanius and Augustine on this, 218. 



N 



Nathan, book of, noticed, 61. 
Nazarene, Christ called a, 67. 
Nicholas, Dr. Melchior, his vindication of 
Luther, noticed, 25. 



O 



Oath of Jesuits, and papists, not to be relied 
on, 326; their own secret oath, 329. 

Oath taken by Roman catholic priests, and 
bishops, 318. 

Objections and misstatements of priests, ex- 
amined, see Letter VL part i. 55. 

Odor of sanctity, popish meaning of, 107. 

Oral instruction not to be separated, as the 
priests insist, from the use of the Scriptures, 
68. 

Ordination, and episcopal consecration, no 
Romish priest can prove his, 47, 48. 

Origen, quoted, 209 ; on prayers in an un- 
known tongue, 216; against the Roman 
catholic rule of faith, 227 ; and the apocry- 
pha, 2-30; and transubstantiation p. 239. 



Pagan origin of popish rites, 106, 137* 264 — ' 
268 ; pagans outdone by papists 331. 

Parents, appeal to, on Jesuit seminaries, 192. 

Patrick, St. miracles of, 108, 109, defence of 
him from popish legends, note, 139, 232. 

Paul, F. his saying of the Trentine fathers, 
85. 

Penance, superstition of, 138, impiety and 
deism of it, 221; source of wealth, 222. 

Persecution, essential to popery, 127 ; differ- 
ent kinds, 340; it is a dogma of popery to 
persecute, — it is enacted by its councils, 
and advocated by its doctors, 342 — proofs, 
343, 344 ; each bishop is sworn in to per- 
secute, 344 ; specimens of massacres 
and persecutions, 345, 348; numbers killed, 
347. 

Pp:ter, 2. Epist. of, ch. 1. 20 ; perversion of 
by Romanists, 14. 

Peter, whether at Rome, no pope, 160; para- 
ble of him, 173, spirit of antichrist shown, 
_174,_178. 

Pius ii. the pope, ,^neas Sylvius, quoted, 
7o, 159. 

Pix, or box containing </tc wafer god, curious 
pagan origin of, 266. 

Pollution an essential clement in popery, 289- 

Pontifical and priestly arrogance, wielding 
the power " to damn," 17. 

Pontifical high mass, curious picture of this 
theatrical show, 268. 

PopK, the pontifex maximus ; the lord god in 
the Roman church, 19, 41 ; his tcmpordl 



INDEX. 



power aft'ected to be disowned by American 
Roman catholics, 20 ; he must be in fact, 
a god, if he do what the Roman catholic 
rule of faith requires him to do, 22; papal 
succession cut off, 36; wicked popes, 36. 
37, 45 ; the pope appoints new articles of 
faith, 43, 83; the names of our Lord arro 
garitly given to him, 43, 44; he calls him 
self " God," 44, 323 1 specimens of the 
character of popes, 45, 46; "a god upon 
earth," he pardons sins ; makes new gods, 
or saints ; and thus adds to the number of 
the objects of worship; 56, 57; pope Joan, 
62 ; the pope made by -^a^isis^ ^patcr fa- 
milias,^' in the place of Christ, 83, 89 : spe- 
cimen of atrocious popes, and yet vicars of 
God, 162, 163; frightful scenes at Rome, by 
the conduct of popes, 163 ; three antipopes 
uniting to make a barter of the church, 165 ; 
worse than any civil tyrant in any land, 
167; a pope's idolatrous prayer at the con- 
secration of images, 280 ; they bring all 
things, for sale, into market, for money, 
290; the adoration of the pope at his elec- 
tion, 323; a pope's public rejoicings on ac 
count of the French massacres of the 
Huguonots, 347. 
Popery, it labours to conceal, in our land 
its real tenets, 40; its genius strictly mo- 
narchical, and despotic, 41; its hostility to 
the freedom of the people, and to republics 
41, 195 ; its spirit and doctrines the same 
now, unchanged, as in the Dark Ages, 41 
126; its nature, and atheism, 44, 123, 127 
its revolting immorality, 45, 188, 189 ; the no 
velty of its essential doctrines and rites, 91 
it is a system of forgeries and novel inven 
lions; proof. Letter viii. part i., 87, 93, 187, 
232 ; its dogmas, and rites originated in fa 
naticism, 105, 115; family group of its gods, 
106 ; it peoples the world with saint-idols 
even as the pagans did it, with hero-idols 
106; offices of its idols, 106 ; it has lost the 
spirit of Christianity, 126 ; it claims the pow 
er of " damning" its enemies, 128 ; the 
vices and ignorance of its votaries, 128 
the marks and notes of its church, 149 ; its 
passport given, for the usual consideration, 
to any dying man, to heaven, 149, 150; its 
images, 152; at/tree headed monster in it. 
■which cut off its succession, 164 ; it nevei 
reforms, never improves, on its own avowal 
191 ; it is a very broken, divided, and dis 
tracted sect, 202, 203, 205; its claims to 
pardon sin, and absolve, refuted, 218; it is 
a system of pious frauds to plunder nations 
successfully ; proof, Spain, 252, 253 ; its 
deplorable moral condition in popish lands ; 
its tenets cause the evil to wax worse and 
worse, 262 ; it is shown to be perpetuated 
paganism, 264; proof: contrast of it, and 
paganism, S65; its frightful idolatry, 274, 
283; gymptwus. and elements of its ruin, 
284; its po]lution.^~§89-f-it is at war with 
ijhe gospel of ChfisV, on essential particu 



lars, proof, 293; every doctrine, ritej nnd 
" efficacy of grace" in it, rendered utterly 
uncertain ; and its whole system abortive, 
by its extraordinary doctrine of Intention, 
297, 300; its essential attribute of despot- 
ism, 306 ; its six grand attributes discussedi 
320, &c. ; the number of those who have 
been murdered by it, 347, 348. 

Popish authors quoted relative to the popes, 
37 ; blunders of, about ordinances, 83. 

Power, Dr. solemnly appealed to God that he, 
and the priests encouraged the reading of 
the Bible in the vernacular tongue, — yet no 
authorised version in English. 88, 122 ; his 
lame defence of it, 133; specimen of the 
saints to whom he prays, 163. 

Precepts, the ten precepts of God repealed, 
practically, by popery, 288, 289. 

Predictions, Romish priests fill up these, as 
recorded in Scripture, 194. 

Priest of a false religion, character of, 331. 

Priest, an office as used among the papists, 
unknown in the New Testament, 47, 48. 

Priesthood, a ghostly aristocracy and nobility 
in popery, 57 ; impure by their very office, 
129, 188, 189; its legal existence rendered 
uncertain by their own doctrine of Inten- 
tion, 297, 300. 

Priests, of New-York, — boast against our rule, 
the Bible, as Paine did, 78, 116; their un- 
fairness, 84,85,115, 118; the attributes of 
their logic, 87; specimens of it, 101; their 
spirit indicative of popery, 104, 116, 119 i 
they borrow all the little they say, out of 
old Mumford, and Milner, 105, et passim: 
their violence against the holy Bible, 116, 
117, 133; their unguarded admission against 
their own saints' legends, 119 ; they charge 
false miracles on Protestants, 119 ; two sin- 
gular admissions drawn from them, 122 ; 
they aim at personal violence, 131 ; Dr. B.'s 
card on this, 132; their acerbity of style^ 
133, 147 ; they call Dr. B. '' a liar,'" 147 ; 
their aim utterly defeated, 148 ; their maniac 
logic, 150, 151 ; their final Letter, and re- 
treat, 167. 

Primitive Christianity of Ireland and Spain 
before popery overran them, 91, 93, 225. 

Pi-otestant, and papist, contrast of, on an es- 
sential point, 84; Protestant divisions, reply 
to charge of, 84 ; Protestants' harmony in 
doctrine, 153; contrast of the Protestant 
and popish claims to have the true faith, 
156 ; Protestant parents appealed to on Jesuit 
seminaries, 192; Protestants have persecut- 
ed, instances, 341; radical difterence be.^ 
tween the principle prompting them, and 
that of the papists, 341. 

Purgatory, a novel invention, 98, 152, 260; 
it was originated by fanatics, 113 ; the raoot-» 
ed question if priests know who are in it, 
142 ; miracle oF visibly letting out souls, in 
form o^ mice, 142; as crfliff in ye\\H, 144; 
anecdote of a priest who had purgatory in 
his house, 180 ; it is the temple of mammon, 



INDEX- 



248; curious remark of a cardinal about it. 
248 ; history of it, — a pagan fiction import- 
ed; neither the Jesuit Cotton, nor the devil, 
could find a text for it, 249; the eight dun- 
geons in purgatory for eight castes of hope- 
ful sinnei-s, 250 ; the real use of it, 251 ; 
specimen of popish extortion by this, in 
Spain, 252; refutation of purgatory, — from 
reason, and Scripture, 253; the monstrous 
absurdities of it, 255 ; it sets out the priests 
before the public, as inhuman monsters 
256; condemned by the best of the fathers 
256; by councils, 259; has not the unani- 
mous consent, and therefore, wants even po' 
pish evidence, 259. 



a 



Quotation.-^;, unfair ones, valuable maxim on 



,16, 



R 



Rack, tortures of the, 338. 

Reformation needful in Rome, 260 ; quota- 
tions of her writers urging it, 261. 

Reformers vindicated, 24, 26. 

Relics, origin of, a mere novelty, 99 ; rare spe- 
cimen of them, 107, 281, &c. ; worship of 
them, 282 ; farther specimens, very curious 
303; the ridiculous folly of these will work 
the final ruin of popery, 302, 305. 

Religion, contrast between the true and the 
false, 292. 

Republicanism, — poperv's essential doctrines 
in deadly hostility to it, 195, 196, 308, 313, 
322 ; proof from the oatli of priests, and 
bishops, 318 ; its present conspiracy against 
our republic, 306, 308. 

Reuchlin's saying of the Latin version, com 
pared with the original Hebrew and Greek 
88. 

Rites of Romanism, founded in fanaticism, 
113. 

Rock, text of the ; criticism on it ; the senti- 
ments of the fathers on it, 205, 207. 

Roman catholics, earnest appeals to them, 
178, 182, 232, 241. 

Roman church, in the 4th century, rejected 
the epistle to the Hebrews, 119. 

Romish system, or popery, is the perpetuation 
of paganism, 2G4, 268. 

Roscoc, and tjie laconic senate, 16. 

Rucellai's judgment on the political tendency 
of tlie bull In cama Domini, 318, 319. 

Rule of faith, 7, 8. 9, 12, 16 ; our sentiments 
on this, always misquoted by papists, 23, 
54 ; the cijurch of God had always the 
same rule of faith, 59; no books of the 
sacred canon lost, 61. 

Rule of faith, among papistm, 7, 17, 21,31; 
their rule is the church, 149 ; their errors in 
thi« matter. 9, 10, 11; their avowed rule a 
cumbrous load, 21, 120; their infaUihUi rule 
made up o^ fallible materials, 7, 11 ; the real 
origin of this papal dogma, 19; rciutatioii of 
the papa] rule in ttn argUmftntpi, IP, 3fi, S4, 



Sabbath, change of, not determined by tradi- 
tion only 68. 
Saints, invocation of, a novelty, 95; origin 
of, 96 ; opposed by the fathers, 96 ; the la- 
borious services imposed on each by pa- 
pists, 106; reported miracles of, 109; spe- 
cimen of wicked men made saints, 162 ; 
saint worship condemned by scripture and 
the fathers, 213, 214; specimen of extraor- 
dinary saint worship 279, 283 ; farther no- 
tice of the labours and services of these 
saints, 280. 

Sanctity of Romanism, reviewed, 184. 

Scarlet colored Beast &c. notices of, 330. 

Schisms in the Romish church, view of the, 
162. 

Scriptures, no obscurity in them, 9, 13; their 
authenticity and genuineness, 9, 10, 52. 53. 
their inspiration, proofs of it, 8, 9, 12, 18, 51, 
to 55 ; confession of this wrung from the 
priests, 17; evidence of this, external and in- 
ternal, 51; historical evidence, tradition, 52; 
no inspired books lost, 53 ; our English ver- 
sion the priests call " most abominably cor- 
rupt," 79; Dr. Curtis' collection of errors, 
Dr. Cardwell's exposure, 79 and 89,90; 
Walton's judgment of our version 89 ; 
Selden's 89; Geddes', 89; keeping them 
in a dead language, a popish novelty, 99; 
fathers quoted, 99, 100; priest's renewed 
attack on them, 101, 102; their sophistry 
exposed, 103 ; Scriptures prohibited by the 
Roman catholic church, 135; anecdote of 
a papist, and a Bible, 181. 

Selden, his judgment of our version of the Bi- 
ble, 89. _ ^ 

Servants, priests' instructions to, at the con- 
fessional, 129, 147. 

Society, and marriage among papists thrown 
into confusion by the popish doctrine o^ In- 
tention, 300. 

Spirit of God, speaking in the Bible, the only 
judge of controversies in doctrines, 3, 7, 8 ; 
the priests' perversion on this, "the interior 
spirit, " ' ' our -private spirit,^^ 15, 23, 30 ; they 
always misquote our definitions, 54, 58. 

Spirits,"^evil, successfully battled by Romish 
saints, 109. 

State always in union, with the church, in 
Roman catholic lands, 314. 

St. Sacrament a Romish idol, 136 ; fiirther spe- 
cimens of its idolatrous worship, 283. 

Statues and images work miracles, 110. 

Succession, apostolical, of the papists totally 
cut off, 35, 38 ; review of it, 159. 

Supererogation, base superstition of, 140. 

Superstition of popery, 135, incense ; holy 
water, charms, 137; condemned by reason 
and Scripture 274, 283 

Supremacy, papal, four sects of faith in th 
Romish church on this point, 19,20.124; 
Bellarmine's ultra views of it, 75, 83; ori- 
gin of it, 93 &:.c. resisted by councils and 
the fathero. 93, 35 ; j"arrin^lcmentB an4 
faVt'ioTiB m Rnme on u] 294. ^97. 



I>'DEX. 



T 



Tax Book of popery, tariff prices of sin, 191 ; 
and Appendix ii. 

Temporal power of the pope, 124, 125. anec- 
dote to illustrate it, 125, 126 ; proof of this 
claim by the popes, 308, 312, 322; far- 
ther proof, 326. 

Tertullian, on the rule of faith, 74, 226 ; 
against papal supremacy, 94; on succession, 
110 ; on images, 213 ; transubstantiation, 
238; the mass, 246; and purgatory, 257. 

Testament, the new, not v.'ritten, say the 
priests, bj- Christ's command, 34. 

Textual difficulties solved, 65; 3Iatt!i. i. Luke 
iii., 31atth. xxvii., and chap. ii. 23 — 68, 67. 

Theodoret, against papal supremac}^, 94; 
against saint worship, 96; on the succes- 
sion, 210; against transubstantiation, 238. 

Tortures of the Inquisition, 337, 340. 

Tradition, historical, an evidence of the inspi-| 

ration of the Bible, 18 ; the priests reject all; Virgin Magdalen, popish miracle by her, 107. 
liistorical traditions, except simply those of: Vulgate, one of the worst translations of the 
their ow^n sect, 31. ! Bible, 14; N. Y. priests' defence of it, 65; 

Traditions, papal, their fanaticism, exti-ava-j exposure of it, 69; Clementine and Sextine 
gance, and impiety, 55, 56 ; apostolical tra 



Varela, Dr. retreats, yet, Parthian-Iike, keeps 
up a retreating fire, 12 ; his daring attack 
on the only rule of faith, the Scriptures, 12, 
16 ; reply to his Letters, 80 ; specimen of 
his misquotations, 82 : ludicrous blunder of 
his about •' ordinances," 83. 

Vicars of God, three perjured ones, in Holy 
Mother, at once, 166. 

Vicious circle, — this false logic emjiloyed by 
papists, 58, 120, 121 ; they deny it, yet use 
it, at the same time, 64 ; they employ it on 
traditions, 120 ; and on their infallibilitv, 
121. 

Virgin Mary, specimen of her worship, ren- 
dered by papists, 96, 97; this idolatry con- 
demned by Scripture, and the fathers, 217, 
218 ; she is the great goddess, the Diana of 
the Romans, — farther specimens of proofs 
281. 



ditions, 68, 69 ; the priests' vicious circle on 

them, 120. 
Traffic with heretics forbidden by the Man of 

Sin, 335. 
Translations, the priests' ludicrous assaults 

on them, 14. 
Transubstantiation, a novel invention. 98; 

refutation from Scripture and the fathers, 

233 ; the papists sustain their doctrine bv 



editions of it, 70, 71, 88; Jerome's saying 
of the Latin version, 88 ; there is no aiitlwr- 
ised version of the Bible in English, by the 
Roman church, 88. 

W 

Waldenses vindicated from the atrocious slan- 
der of N. Y. priests, 26, 27 ; testimony in 
their favor, by two inquisitors, and a pope, 

one of the absurdities of Aristotle, 235; itj 27,28; their terrible sufferings and massa- 

brutalizes a man; it compels its believersi cres by papists, 345, 346. 

to disbelieve the evidence of their senses, ' Walton, quoted by the priests as favoring 

235 ; a believer in it can never he a witness their Vulgate, 65 ; this is not correct, 89. 

in any case, 235 ; condemned by eighteenlWars in Europe for ages, caused, mainly, by 

of the fathers, and the eastern liturgies, j popery, 166, 204. 

237, 241. Wax candles, lamps, — origin of, among pa- 

Treachery, a grand attribute of popery, 325., pists. 138. 
Trinity, representation of, in the popish idol- Wenefride, St., three popish miracles in her 

atry, 106. i life, 108. 

U iWesley, John, vindicated from the wanton- 

! charges of N. Y. priests, 23, &c. 
Unanimous consent of the fathers, the popish White slaves, Roman catholic lands, the coun- 

system destitute of the, 72, 75, 209, 216, 217. ; try of, 330. 
Union of church and state, characteristic of| 

popery, 314. 
Unitarians at one with papists on an essential 

point, 235. 
Unity claimed by Roman catholics, no such 

thing among them, 5, 6; cause of their ap- 
parent unity, 5 ; the only kind of union 

among them, 6 ; review of their affected York 

unity, 200, 220. 
Usher, a good advice of his to popish priests 

relative to purgatory, 260. 



Xavier, St., popish miracles in his life, 109. 



Y 



th 



cardinal duke of, referred to ; the 
book containing an account of a synod held 
by him, gives the lie to bishop England's 
statement. De Bulla, In ccena Domini, 316, 




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